Greens Fight San Bernardino’s Plan for River Water

Two environmental groups challenged San Bernardino’s plan to drastically cut water releases to the Santa Ana River, claiming it will hurt endangered wildlife species and their habitats. The Center for Biological Diversity and the San Bernardino Valley Audubon Society sued San Bernardino and its Municipal Water Department in Superior Court Thursday, asking that construction of the proposed Clean Water Factory project be postponed until the city’s environmental studies comply with the California Environmental Quality Act. The project will divert up to 22 million gallons of water a day into the rapid infiltration and extraction facility and from there to spreading basins, with the potential to cut flow rates of the Santa Ana River in half, according to the environmentalists’ 28-page complaint. Flowing 96 miles from its headwaters in the San Bernardino Mountains to drain in a watershed that spans four counties, the Santa Ana is the largest river entirely within Southern California...more