California recycled water rules to be loosened under new state Senate bill
The drought may have ended in 2017, but now, even when it's raining, California's water supply has remained a topic of debate. And while there have been calls for more water storage, some believe the problem could be solved if we stopped viewing water as a single-use product.
Much of Northern and Central California's freshwater flows toward the Delta. But with so much being siphoned off by so many different interests, it's become a huge battleground in state Sen. Jerry McNerney's district.
"We're right in the middle of water controversy," he said. "Basically, what I want to do is make sure that water is available through recycling, through storage, through a little bit of de-salt, so we don't have to fight so much over the water that's in the Delta."
On Tuesday, McNerney introduced SB 31 to ease some regulations on the use of recycled water. The treated wastewater can already be legally used to irrigate most landscaping and lawns. But if, for example, a golf course or park uses it to fill a lake and it should leak or heavy rains cause it to overflow, large fines could be levied as if it were a toxic spill. SB 31 would correct that.
"They'll be more likely to want to use it because they'll be facing less liability for spills or other incidents where water gets out," said McNerney.
It's a small correction, but it shows how closely the state's laws regarding water are being scrutinized these days, especially involving recycled water, which many see as the most readily abundant supply source. California currently uses about 700,000 acre-feet of recycled water each year. Gov. Gavin Newsom has set a goal of using twice that amount by 2040.
By contrast, the Santa Clara Valley Water District began supporting recycling efforts in the 1950s.
"We recognized early that it is a drought-resilient supply and locally controlled and that we need it to offset potable use," said Kirsten Struve, assistant officer of the water supply division at Valley Water.
Across the Bay Area, communities are installing the distinctive purple pipes that separate recycled water from drinking water. That's also part of the law and one of the things that make recycled water delivery pretty costly, right now. Aside from landscaping, it's being used to cool massive computer servers in Silicon Valley and to flush toilets at San Jose City Hall and San Jose State University.
Still, only about 15% of the county's recycled water is being put to use.
"And Valley Water wants to take the next step and do potable reuse," said Struve, "which were regulations that came into effect in October, I believe."
Valley Water has built a plant that can clean wastewater so thoroughly that it can be used as drinking water. Now that the state has legalized it, their goal for potable use is 24,000 acre-feet per year, enough to supply about 72,000 households.
"It will take some time and, of course, public outreach will be important," said Struve.
Now that the laws are changing, public opinion may be the biggest obstacle. It's one thing to water golf courses with water from the toilet. Offering recycled water for drinking may be an idea that's harder for people to swallow.
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San Francisco Chronicle
2 days ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
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Congress is still negotiating the budget, which the Senate has not yet passed. The budget would also cut from social safety nets like Medicaid and the federal food stamps program while spending on border security, deportations and tax cuts. The Trump administration's budget document, submitted May 2 by White House budget director, Russell Vought, states college access programs are 'a relic of the past' and that it's 'engaging in woke ideology with federal taxpayer subsidies.' 'Today, the pendulum has swung and access to college is not the obstacle it was for students of limited means,' stated Vought's budget document. It added that colleges and universities 'should be using their own resources' to recruit students. The TRIO programs were created in the 1960s as part of a federal 'war on poverty.' While inequality in college attainment has slightly decreased since 1970, it persists, according to an analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data by Pell Institute researchers. 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Axios
28-05-2025
- Axios
Bill targeting abortion pills misses key deadline
An effort to limit abortion pills in Texas appears to have died in the Legislature. Why it matters: Abortion is already illegal in Texas, but Republicans this session turned their attention to medication abortion, which accounts for most abortions performed in the U.S. Driving the news: Senate Bill 2880 — a sweeping measure that allows lawsuits against those mailing, delivering, manufacturing or distributing abortion bills — sailed through the Senate last month, but did not receive a vote in the House before a key deadline. Senate bills must have received a vote in the House by Tuesday to move to Gov. Greg Abbott's desk. The legislative session ends Monday. Yes, but: It's not over 'til it's over. Measures can be resurrected at the last minute through amendments. What they're saying:"This is a significant failure from the House," Texas Right to Life president John Seago told the Texas Tribune. "When you look at the opportunity this bill had, it seems like there was a deliberate effort to slow the bill down, if not to kill it." Zoom in: More than three dozen Republicans signed a letter last week urging the House State Affairs Committee to vote on the bill so that it could move to the full chamber. The committee approved the measure, but too late in the legislative process to make it to the House floor before the clock ran out. The big picture: The Legislature has moved along several other abortion-related bills. SB 31, aimed at clarifying Texas' abortion ban, which includes an exception that allows doctors to terminate a pregnancy to save the pregnant person's life, is awaiting a signature by Abbott. SB 33, which bans a city from using taxpayer money to pay for abortion-related expenses, also awaits the governor's signature. Both Austin and San Antonio have allocated money to support people traveling for abortions out of state. The other side: "SB 31 doesn't undo the harm of the state's abortion ban, and it never could. No amount of 'clarification' can fix a fundamentally unjust law," Blair Wallace, policy and advocacy strategist for reproductive rights at the ACLU of Texas, said in a statement on the passage of SB 31.
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- Yahoo
Why There Are So Many Car-Ramming Attacks—and What to Do About It
A tent is erected by police on Water Street in Liverpool after a car collided with pedestrians during the Premier League winners parade on May 26, 2025. Credit - Danny Lawson—A driver on Monday evening plowed a minivan into a sea of hundreds of thousands of soccer fans celebrating Liverpool's victory in the Premier League, injuring more than 45 people, including at least four children. Fans wrapped in red scarves and dressed in the English team's jerseys were at a victory parade the day after the season's end when a grey minivan turned onto the parade route around 6 p.m. local time. The vehicle struck a man, throwing him into the air, then plowed through a larger group of people before coming to a stop, video on social media shows. The crowd reportedly charged the stopped vehicle and smashed its windows, but the driver continued driving through the rest of the crowd. 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In February, a 24-year-old man killed a mother and her daughter and injured 37 others when he rammed his car into a union rallydemonstration in Munich, Germany. In January, a 42-year-old man drove a pickup truck into a crowd in New Orleans, La., in the early hours of New Year's Day, killing at least 15 in what police called an act of terrorism. In December, at least five people were killed and over 200 injured when a 50-year-old man rammed an SUV into a Christmas market in Magdeburg, eastern Germany. And in November, a 62-year-old man slammed a car into people exercising at a sports complex in Zhuhai, southern China, killing 35. Here's what to know about vehicle-rammings, why they're so dangerous, and what to do in case of an attack. Comprehensive data is limited, but according to a 2019 study from San Jose State University researchers, 70% of vehicle-ramming incidents up to that point had happened in the last five years. In 2016, vehicle-ramming attacks were the most lethal form of attack and accounted for more than half of all terrorism-related deaths that year. A string of high-profile attacks in 2016 and 2017 killed more than 100 people, the deadliest of which happened in Nice, France, on Bastille Day, July 14, 2016, when a man drove a rented truck through a seaside promenade, killing 86. In the past six months alone, there have been 15 vehicle-ramming attacks worldwide, not counting the latest in Liverpool, killing 71 people, according to the National Transportation Security Center. Part of why vehicle-ramming has become a more frequent method of choice for mass-casualty attacks is due to the relative ease in carrying it out. 'This tactic requires little or no training, no specific skillset, and carries a relatively low risk of early detection,' nonprofit global policy think tank Rand said. 'A car, a knife—these are everyday items, often it's very unclear that someone has bad intentions with them until it's too late,' Bart Schuurman, professor of terrorism and political violence at Leiden University, told Euronews in April. In cases of orchestrated terror attacks, using a vehicle lets people get around counter-terrorism efforts that make access to firearms and explosives difficult, Schuurman added. But not all cases are orchestrated by terrorist groups. Some incidents are mental health-related, like in Zhuhai, China, or they are ideologically-affiliated but committed by an individual. It's become a 'quickly adopted' method by right-wing extremists, for example, Schuurman said, such as when a white supremacist killed one and injured 35 people who were protesting against a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville in 2016 and when a 25-year old self-described 'incel,' drove a rental van into a crowd of mainly women in Toronto in 2018, killing 10 people and injuring 16. The diversity in perpetrators and their motivations poses an additional challenge to preventing attacks. A 2018 study on the 'imitative' quality of vehicle rammings found that car-ramming incidents offer a model in terms of 'the act itself, as something that is not merely an expression of an individual or an ideology, but something that has a lure and force all of its own.' 'It subconsciously becomes part of the repertoire of options for people to express their anger in some way and they get exposed to it through the vectors of the media and social media,' sociologist Vincent Miller, who co-authored the study, told DW News. 'The profile of the perpetrator is very hard to define. The main thing they have in common is the act,' he added. A 2021 report by Rand looked into how rental or vehicle-sharing schemes have been used in some attacks, such as was the case in the New Year's Day ramming in New Orleans. It suggested that limited collaboration between industry and law enforcement due to data protection constraints, a lack of industry-wide training when it comes to identifying a potential attacker, and insufficient security procedures during online booking can all make it harder to mitigate an attack. Pauline Paille, a Rand researcher focused on international security, told DW News that certain barriers to vehicle rentals could be implemented to mitigate against such attacks. These include stronger background checks and financial deposits, as well as geofencing—which uses location data to create virtual boundaries for cars—to block smart cars from turning into pedestrianized areas. Paille also said that urban areas could be redesigned to separate roads from footpaths. Vehicle barriers are already commonly used during large-scale outdoor pedestrian events such as festivals or parades as a mitigation strategy. The Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency offers some guidance on how to prevent an attack or what to do if one happens. While the use of a car or other vehicle often means there are fewer indicators of an attack plot, CISA suggests looking out for the following and reporting them to authorities if they seem suspicious, particularly for vehicle rental business workers: Reported theft of large or heavy-duty vehicles Difficulty explaining the planned use of a rented vehicle Nervousness or other suspicious behaviour during a vehicle rental discussion, for example insistence on paying in cash Lack of or refusal to produce required documentation for a vehicle rental Difficulty operating, or apparent lack of familiarity or experience with, a rented vehicle Loitering, parking, or standing in the same area over multiple days with no clear explanation Unexplained use of binoculars, cameras, or recording devices around a certain area In case of a vehicle-ramming attack, pedestrians should: Run away from the vehicle and towards the nearest safe area If you fall, curl into a protected position and try to get up as soon as possible to avoid being trampled Seek cover behind any objects that eliminate the direct line of sight from the vehicle Call 9-1-1 and follow instructions from law enforcement and first responders Organizers of events should: Include clear signage for emergency entry and exit points, first-aid stations, and shelter locations Define the perimeter that requires access control for pedestrians and vehicles Restrict vehicular traffic through pedestrianized areas Use remote parking and shuttle services Use physical barriers like bollards, heavy planters, and barricades, to create standoff distances between large crowds and vehicles Consider positioning heavy vehicles around the perimeter of crowded areas to serve as an additional physical barrier Contact us at letters@
