THE CONSTRUCTION, though not the long-term operation, of a proposed 45-mile extension to the State Water Project, backed by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, has received permission from two key federal wildlife agencies.

On Friday, the California Department of Water Resources received permits known as biological opinions from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service concluding that construction can proceed under conditions designed to protect endangered species and sensitive habitat. 

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Ruth Dusseault is an investigative reporter and multimedia journalist focused on environment and energy. Her position is supported by the California local news fellowship, a statewide initiative spearheaded by UC Berkeley aimed at supporting local news platforms. While a student at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism (c’23), Ruth developed stories about the social and environmental circumstances of contaminated watersheds around the Great Lakes, Mississippi River and Florida’s Lake Okeechobee. Her thesis explored rights of nature laws in small rural communities. She is a former assistant professor and artist in residence at Georgia Tech’s School of Architecture, and uses photography, film and digital storytelling to report on the engineered systems that undergird modern life.