How has life in the Bay Area changed over the last 20 years? These stories straight from our Bay City News archives capture news of the day from 5, 10, and 20 years ago – as originally published at the time. Explore these history snapshots and ponder how today’s news compares to that of years past.
MAY 18, 2021
East Bay water officials outlined long-term supply planning as drought and climate pressure sharpened the region’s water concerns. The story speaks to current questions about infrastructure resilience, conservation, and how utilities prepare for a less predictable climate.
Bay City News Reported:
“East Bay Water Officials Plan For Long-Term Supply“
East Bay Municipal Utility District officials have seen droughts come and go. But they seem to be coming more frequently this century. Climate change is stoking devastating wildfire seasons year after year, drying the state out and just making it more flammable the following year.
State water officials say that means less water in the Mokelumne River Watershed, the main source for EBMUD and its 1.4 million customers. Last winter was the state’s driest since 1977, prompting the district to officially declare a stage one drought on April 27 and ask customers to cut ten percent of their water use.
What can the East Bay expect moving forward? EBMUD’s director of water and natural resources, Mike Tognolini, appeared earlier this month during on online chat hosted by Local News Matters. He said the district plans at least a year ahead, in case droughts continue. And climate change is now a constant factor, “whether we are considering infrastructure, water supply, or anything else.”
“We approach this issue from two angles,” Tognolini said. “First, how will the changing climate impact our ability to serve our customers? We consider things like changing weather conditions, extreme events, increased temperatures leading to increased water use, changes to habitat on our watershed, wildfire risk, etc.”
“Second, we evaluate climate change of what can we do as a utility to reduce the impacts of climate change,” he said. “For EBMUD this means finding ways to reduce our energy consumption and use green alternatives when we must use power. Our EBMUD Board has established the most aggressive greenhouse gas reduction goal for a water utility that we know of in the nation – to have net zero carbon emission for our water utility by 2030.”
Water experts are frequently asked why California doesn’t build more reservoirs to catch all that fresh water headed out to the Pacific during good years. “The age of building new on-stream dams is generally behind us,” Tognolini said. “On-stream reservoirs can cause harm to habitat for many species and specifically migrating fish like salmon. That is not to say there will not be any new dams. The focus is on enlarging existing dams, where practical, or building off-stream dams that don’t block major rivers or utilizing underground storage.”
Storage facility expansion is already underway in a couple Bay Area locations. “Under Proposition 1, the state is providing significant funding to promote a number of new storage facilities,” Tognolini said. “There are two proposed in the Bay Area: Los Vaqueros Reservoir in Contra Costa County and Pacheco Reservoir in Santa Clara County.” “EBMUD has prepared a draft Urban Water Management Plan this year that considers what our water supply portfolio may look like in 30 years,” Tognolini said. “We try to create a diverse set of supply sources to be more resilient to future drought.”
California water districts must think outside the box. Wastewater recycling for non-drinking purposes has been in play at EBMUD for decades. “We can recycle 9 million gallons per day for industrial and irrigation use, and our plan is to double that to 20 million gallons per day by 2040,” Tognolini said. How about desalinating some of that endless sea water off our coast? “Desalination is an option that is considered by many water utilities and the largest seawater desalination project in the state is in Southern California,” Tognolini said. “There are also local projects that desalinate salty groundwater or wastewater for use. EBMUD does not currently desalinate water, and while it is on the list of possible long term future projects, it does have some drawbacks compared to other alternatives like high energy use – potential high cost and carbon emissions- and brine disposal.”
Even while we send water hundreds of miles south to Los Angeles, our neighbors to the north rarely have water supply issues. Why not get some from them? “This idea and similar ideas have been evaluated and considered in the past,” Tognolini said. “The infrastructure and energy costs would be massive. So far, nothing has made sense financially. Also, we would have to have an agreement from other states to sell us their water – probably not an easy issue to resolve.”
The good news is that Californians are used to droughts and reservoirs were mostly full before the last rainy season began. “EBMUD customers did an outstanding job responding to water conservation messages during the last drought,” said Andrew Lee, the district’s head of customer service. “EBMUD customers used 24 percent less water in 2015 as compared to 2013, at the beginning of the last drought. Since then, EBMUD customers continued conserving water and are using 13 percent less water in 2020 compared to 2013.”
MAY 18, 2016
San Jose approved a travel ban to North Carolina and Mississippi in response to state laws criticized as discriminatory against LGBTQ people. The vote fits into continuing debates over how local governments use purchasing and travel policies to defend civil rights.
Bay City News reported:
“San Jose Approves Travel Ban Over Controversial State Laws“
Under a resolution passed Tuesday by San Jose’s City Council, city workers can’t travel to two states that have controversial laws against people based on their sexual orientation. The San Jose City Council approved by a 9-1 vote a ban on any nonessential travel in North Carolina and Mississippi until the states change their policies that impact the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer community.
“This is something we’ve got to take a stand on. It’s a violation of civil rights,” Vice Mayor Rose Herrera said. “The rules are set out to create a separate and unequal system for LGBT people,” Herrera said. City Councilman Pierluigi Oliverio cast a no vote and Councilman Manh Nguyen didn’t cast a vote. City Councilman Johnny Khamis supported the resolution but prior to the vote said the policy isn’t being treated “evenhandedly.” Khamis pointed out that the city doesn’t have travel bans on 27 states that aren’t taking in Syrian refugees or countries that violate human rights.
In late March, North Carolina passed House Bill 2 that requires transgender people to use a bathroom under the gender listed on their birth certificate and stops local governments from passing any anti-discrimination laws that shield the LGBT community. Mississippi’s “Protecting Freedom of Conscience from Government Discrimination Act” became a law in early April that protects government employees, businesses and faith groups that discriminate others based on their sexual or gender orientation or marriage. San Francisco has passed similar bans on travel paid through public funds, along with other major cities including Los Angeles, Seattle, Baltimore, and the state of New York.
MAY 18, 2006
A Santa Clara County civil grand jury found that San Jose police traffic-stop data raised concern about racial profiling. The report remains relevant to ongoing debates over police data, bias, and whether oversight systems can identify unequal enforcement patterns.
Bay City News reported:
“Grand Jury Raises Concern About Racial Profiling In San Jose“
The Santa Clara County civil grand jury has found “legitimate concerns” about individual police officers targeting racial minorities in downtown San Jose but no evidence of systemic racial profiling by the San Jose Police Department, according to a new report.
The grand jury examined police conduct in downtown San Jose in response to numerous allegations from individuals and community groups about alleged racial profiling by officers, especially after an October 2005 shooting at a downtown hip-hop club. As a result of an extensive inquiry, the grand jury “believes there are legitimate concerns regarding individual police excesses. It appears there is no systemic sanctioned program of racial profiling being implemented by the SJPD Administration,” according to the report.
The grand jury makes eight recommendations in its report including the establishment of a pilot program where all officers would give out their business cards when making stops of vehicles or pedestrians. The report also recommends expanding the authority of the city’s independent police auditor to include some investigative powers and that the city council form a task force to examine whether a police civilian review board should be established in San Jose. The civil grand jury is a civic watchdog organization tasked by the state constitution to examine local government bodies to ensure the best interest of the public are being served.
Editor’s Note: All the reporting, writing, and editing of this content was done by human journalists at the time of initial publication. AI tools were used to surface these stories from our internal Bay City News archives and provide the introductory context.