wetlands – Enviro Updates

California Forever pushes Newsom to ease hurdles for proposed new city

June 25, 2026

Laura Waxman & Sophia Bollag, SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE

Backers of the plan to build a new city in Solano County say they are in talks with Gov. Gavin Newsom over legislation that would ease regulatory hurdles for the company’s planned development of a dense, walkable city and a shipbuilding facility along the county’s waterfront.

Newsom’s spokespeople did not respond to multiple requests for comment from the Chronicle about the talks, but the billionaire-backed California Forever project has hired two longtime Newsom allies, which appears to signal that the group is serious about seeking legislation to help circumvent local opposition and curtail CEQA opposition.

In recent months, former state legislative leaders Darrell Steinberg and Bob Hertzberg have been hired to continue rebranding California Forever’s proposal to build an urban enclave in rural Solano County as a conduit for economic growth by bringing new manufacturing and shipbuilding jobs to the region.

Land Useag land, California Forever, CEQA, Delta, development, wetlands

California Forever wants a CEQA exemption for their new city

June 25, 2026

Jim DeKloe, SIERRA CLUB SOLANO GROUP

As you likely know, a group of Silicon Valley billionaires now known as California Forever secretly bought up about 100 square miles of Solano County and also sued the family farmers who wouldn’t sell to them. They say that want to build a new city on this unincorporated farmland currently zoned for agriculture. This proposal is big – 175,000 new houses and 400,000 people – it would be an Oakland/ Minneapolis/ Tulsa/ Bakersfield sized bedroom community and bigger than Cleveland, Cincinnati, Honolulu, Anaheim – it’s big. If it existed today it would be the ninth largest city in California and would be larger than the largest city in nineteen states – it’s big. And a giant city has giant environmental impacts.

Last week it became clear that California Forever is using the influence that its money buys to try to gain special treatment from the California government – they are trying to have the Governor’s Office exempt the entire project from CEQA review. And Go-Biz, the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development, seems willing to do it. It’s likely that they will accomplish this by adding a rider bill to the state budget like they did last year for the advanced manufacturing exemption.

The California Forever scheme has many moving parts and it isn’t clear which parts a special interest bill would cover. Besides the 175,000 houses, California Forever’s stated plans include an industrial area called “the Solano Foundry” and the proposed Collinsville 7,500 acre boat-building facility. A group out of Texas called Saronic that makes drone boats that deliver explosives to other ships shares investors with CF. It is likely that the “shipbuilding” facility will likely go to Brownsville TX – their Commission voted this week to give Saronic a 20 year 95% tax break. And the City of Rio Vista believes that their unstated plans include a massive data center. Each of these components would have a gigantic impact on the environment, on the quality of life of existing residents, and on the continued operation of Travis Air Force Base.

Land UseCalifornia Forever, CEQA, Delta, development, wetlands

‘Puddles and ditches’: California considers protecting wetlands from Trump order

March 14, 2025

Alastair Bland, CALMATTERS

Legislators and environmentalists are considering how to safeguard California’s wetlands after the Trump administration announced its plans to rein in — once again — the nation’s 53-year-old law protecting waterways.

At stake are seasonal streams, ponds and pools, which are only inundated part of the time and found throughout the Southwest. In California, an estimated 80% of all linear miles of streams and rivers are ephemeral or intermittent.

The Trump administration’s plan to alter the Clean Water Act’s definition of wetlands to exclude such waterways could render vast areas of California essentially unprotected from developers and growers.

The plan proposed by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin on Wednesday comes as no surprise. Trump ordered the same move during his first stint in the White House. In 2017 Trump called many wetlands “puddles and ditches” and said the rules were “one of the worst examples of federal regulation and it has truly run amok.” The Biden administration in 2022 enacted new rules that reversed his decision.

During Trump’s first term, California officials said they would take action to protect the state’s wetlands from the president’s order. The State Water Resources Control Board in 2019 adopted new rules to strengthen protection of waters and establish a “single accepted definition of wetlands at the state level.”

Now a new bill introduced last month, Senate Bill 601, would build in more protection, amending the state Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act to copy existing federal protections. It would, among other provisions, require new permitting rules for pollutants from business operations or construction.

Habitats, Water, Wildlifeamphibians, Porter-Cologne, vernal pools, wetlands, wetlands ecosystem

Op-Ed: A right way and a wrong way to fix Highway 37

May 1, 2023

Victoria Brandon, PRESS DEMOCRAT

Everyone agrees that Highway 37 needs fixing.

For nearly a decade, the environmental community has debated plans to restructure Highway 37 between Vallejo and Marin County. Usually, environmental engagement on highway projects focuses on ways to reduce negative impacts, but in this case there is an opportunity for a genuinely positive outcome.

Replacement of the current road with a built-for-resilience elevated causeway would not only protect the highway from flooding, it would reconnect the San Pablo Bay National Wildlife Refuge and other tidal wetlands to San Francisco Bay waters.

Wetlands sequester carbon dioxide, encourage biodiversity by increasing ecologically vital habitat and play a crucial role in meeting the state’s 30 by 30 goals — preserving 30% of land and coastal waters by 2030.

Elevating the highway would also increase the climate resilience of North Bay communities by buffering high-tide events and reducing nearby flooding and by allowing more sediment to flow into San Pablo Bay, which will help protect marshes and communities against sea level rise.

Everyone agrees that Highway 37 needs fixing. Not only does heavy commute traffic and the absence of a transit alternative create daily gridlock, portions of the road become impassable when bay waters are high, and climate change is only going to make that situation worse.

Sierra Club Redwood Chapter activists were therefore disappointed when instead of moving forward with an elevated causeway that its own studies have identified as the preferred alternative, Caltrans proposed an interim fix — an outdated conventional highway-widening project that will reduce traffic congestion and flood risk at best temporarily.

Transportationequity, Highway 37, sea level rise, wetlands

Hwy. 37 could be under water by 2050. Here’s how Caltrans plans to keep traffic flowing

September 18, 2022

Colin Atagi, NORTH BAY BUSINESS JOURNAL

The favored plan also proposes the route have a 60 mph speed limit, as well as two lanes in each direction with bicycle and pedestrian paths. The plan is in its early stages and officials haven’t identified a cost or funding source.

Caltrans, in order to keep traffic flowing decades from now, intends to build an elevated road along Highway 37 to combat rising water levels, which are expected to eventually inundate the North Bay arterial.

The proposed project essentially stretches across the existing route along San Pablo Bay and through Marin, Sonoma, Napa and Solano counties.

It preserves travel patterns, allows landward marsh migration and is resilient to sea level rises, officials said in explaining its benefits.

Climate Change & Energy, Habitats, Transportation, Wildlifebike lanes, bike/pedestrian bridge, flooding, habitat restoration, Highway 37, marsh migration, San Pablo Bay, sea level rise, wetlands

Sea level rise threatens Highway 37; leaders prepare billion dollar plan to stop it

August 24, 2022

Chase Hunter, NORTH BAY BUSINESS JOURNAL

Highway 37 serves as a key artery of Bay Area traffic from Marin County to Vallejo, but its low-lying place in former wetlands makes it susceptible to flooding and sea level rise over coming decades.

Leaders in transportation will need to address two issues at once to ensure the long-term sustainability of the key corridor: the creation of flood-resistant, sea-level impervious infrastructure and the environmental restoration of the wetlands.

“You can’t do the environmental restoration and address sea level rise without doing the transportation project. And you can’t do the transportation improvement projects without addressing sea level rise,” said Suzanne Smith, the executive director of the Sonoma County Transportation Authority.

Climate Change & Energy, TransportationHighway 37, sea level rise, wetlands

Sonoma County vintner, business face $3.75 million fine for alleged environmental damage

May 26, 2022

Emily Wilder, THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

State regulators are seeking to impose a $3.75 million fine on a Sonoma County wine executive and his business for allegedly causing significant damage to streams and wetlands while constructing a vineyard in 2018 near Cloverdale.

The North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board has accused Hugh Reimers, an Australian vintner, and his company Krasilsa Pacific Farms LLC of improperly clearing trees, grading land and disposing of construction and earthen waste materials in a way that was detrimental to wetland waters and wildlife, according to a May 9 complaint by the North Coast Water Board’s enforcement staff.

A 2019 investigation by the water board of the 2,278-acre property, which Krasilsa Pacific purchased in September 2017, found the company violated the California Water Code and the federal Clean Water Act by removing oak woodlands and discharging sediment into Russian River tributaries.

The actions harmed streams that fed into the Little Sulphur, Big Sulphur and Crocker creeks, according to the complaint.

Land Use, Water, Wildlifeconversion to vineyard, environmental crimes, erosion, salmon, sediment, stream pollution, tree removal, vineyards, wetlands