SLO County is fighting to keep its water

Author

Carly Heltzel
February 04, 2025

Good morning. It’s Monday, and I’m listening to the staggeringly accurate bellows produced at Germany’s national deer-calling championship. Onto the five Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo and California stories you need to know for today.

1.

SLO County is fighting to keep its water. A judge ordered the county to release more water from Lopez Lake’s dam to support the migration of steelhead trout, a threatened species. County officials argue the new release schedule would threaten the county’s drinking water supply during a drought year — even after the judge specified provisions for dry seasons. The county is now appealing the decision. If this schedule was used during the 2021 drought, drinking water would have been subjected to “extended periods of poor water quality” for a year. The water also serves as a reserve for firefighting.

2.

The Pacific Coast Highway reopened yesterday after nearly a month of closure due to the LA fires. Traffic began flowing in one lane each direction and under limited speeds from Santa Monica to the Ventura County line; officials urge drivers to only pass through for essential travel. However, fire cleanup and utility repairs are still underway. “This will not be the same PCH as before the fires,” the LA County Supervisor said.

3.

LA City Council proposed five new measures aimed to protect immigrants from President Donald Trump’s aggressive policies. The new measures would 1) require businesses to report ICE activity in the workplace to the city, 2) fund a “know your rights” campaign for education on standing protections, 3) provide space at the airport for legal nonprofits to mitigate a potential ban on travel from several Muslim countries, 4) briefly fund immigration lawyers to keep them afloat after federal funding froze, and 5) call on the city to sponsor state legislation to increase funding for legal advocacy for deportees. The city council will vote on each measure separately. 

4.

California’s biggest insurer, State Farm, is looking to temporarily hike rates by 22% for homeowners — an emergency response to the company’s losses in the LA fires. State Farm has already paid out over $1 billion and received over 8,700 claims following what is already the most expensive fire event in the company’s history. And the cost just keeps rising. Last March, State Farm declined to renew 72,000 policyholders in California due to the state’s low profit margins. It made the decision to drop 70% of homeowners in the now-burnt-to-the-ground Pacific Palisades neighborhood.

5.

Think of a large social event you’ve been to recently. A wedding? A birthday party? Whatever it is, these dolphins are probably doing it bigger. A pod of over 1,500 Risso’s dolphins swarmed off the coast of Carmel Bay in what researchers say was a rare and unusually massive social gathering; the mammals jumped, spy-hopped, breached and even mated as they conglomerated for no apparent reason during their migration south. “They were just having a lot of fun all together,” one researcher said.