Focus
ExxonMobil sued by California AG and environmental nonprofits over plastic waste
The Mercury News – September 23
California Attorney General Rob Bonta and a coalition of environmental nonprofit entities sued ExxonMobil on Monday, accusing the company of enacting a decades-long “campaign of deception” that fueled a global plastic pollution crisis. Separate lawsuits filed in San Francisco Superior Court by Bonta and the nonprofits seek to prove the corporation systematically led the public to believe that plastic waste is safely disposable through recycling and failed to share information about toxic “forever” chemicals and plastics’ lasting environmental harms. ExxonMobil defended its “advanced recycling” practices in a statement on Monday and blamed California officials for not cooperating with efforts to tackle plastic pollution.
News
Los Angeles settles with Monsanto for $35 million over PCBs in waterways
Los Angeles Times – September 24
Contamination of key Los Angeles waterways, including the Santa Monica Bay, Los Angeles Harbor, and Echo Park Lake, due to the spread of toxic chemicals is at the heart of a $35-million settlement between the City of Los Angeles and Monsanto and two smaller companies. The Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday announced the payment by the companies to settle a lawsuit filed in 2022 over damage from long-banned chemicals called PCBs, which have been linked to health problems including cancer. Monsanto confirmed the agreement, saying that the settlement contains no admission of liability or wrongdoing.
Governor Newsom signs bills regulating gas and oil plant locations across California
CBS News – September 25
Governor Gavin Newsom signed three bills on Wednesday that regulate the locations and operations of gas and oil drilling sites across California. Assembly Bill (AB) 3233 gives local governments authority over how and where oil and gas operations can be run, allowing local governments to override decisions by the State Oil and Gas Supervisor, which currently has the final say. AB 1866 puts stricter regulations over idle wells, which can leak and contaminate areas when they are no longer in use. Finally, AB 2716 imposes new regulations on the Inglewood Oil Field in Los Angeles, the largest urban oil field in California, including prohibitions on and monetary penalties relating to low-production oil and gas wells.
California passes new plastic bag ban
NPR – September 25
Ten years after California approved a first-in-the-nation plastic bag ban that’s been blamed for making its plastic bag problem worse, the state is banning single-use plastic grocery bags entirely. In 2014, California passed a ban on plastic bags, but because of a loophole that allowed grocers to charge for thicker plastic bags, California still dumped 231,072 tons of plastic grocery and merchandise bags in landfills in 2021, according to CalRecycle, a sharp increase from the year the ban took effect. Starting on Jan. 1, 2026, customers at most grocery stores, convenience stores, and other retailers will have three main options: Pay at least 10 cents for a paper bag; use a reusable bag; or hand-carry their purchase.
Environmental permit you never heard of could clean, or foul, local waters
The Orange County Register – September 22
At least 10,000 people were expected to pick up trash and help clean Southern California beaches and rivers and streams for Coastal Cleanup Day on September 21. In contrast, eight days earlier, exactly zero members of the general public came to the Cypress Civic Center for an open meeting about how Region 8 of the California Water Board should write its next Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System (MS4) permit. That document regulates the discharge of stormwater from municipal storm sewer systems, including setting limits and other rules about any pollution that may spill out of storm drains and flood control channels in much of Orange, Riverside, and San Bernardino counties for the remainder of the decade. (Los Angeles County goes through the same process.) Some of the proposed terms for the new MS4 permit are controversial, including a first-time effort to create a watershed management plan that might lead to tighter rules against wayward dischargers. Once finalized, the new permit is likely to take effect in 2025.
California tears down levee in ‘largest tidal habitat restoration in state history’
SFGate – September 23
The California Department of Water Resources breached a levee in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta on Wednesday, breaking down a portion of the earthen embankment and allowing tidal waters to flow across 3,400 acres of land for the first time in 100 years. The tearing down of the levee is among the final steps in a public-private project to restore tidal land — which was turned over to farmers and duck hunters — to its natural state. The plot of land, located in Solano County just upriver from Rio Vista, is being called Lookout Slough, and will provide new habitat for fish and wildlife and increase flood protection for the greater Sacramento area by boosting water storage capacity along the Yolo Bypass.
Major East Bay reservoir expansion is axed after years of rising costs, waning agency interest
KQED – September 24
A long-percolating expansion of Los Vaqueros Reservoir in Contra Costa County will not move forward after costs and delays mounted in recent years, ending a project that would have significantly boosted the Bay Area’s water supply. The project, first proposed in 2017, would have increased the reservoir’s capacity by more than 70% and distributed water to residents across the Bay Area. Contra Costa Water District Board President Ernesto A. Avila announced on Monday that the agency would end its participation in the project, citing increasing costs and declining participation from other local water agencies.
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