Coachella Valley Water District gets $39M grant for plant expansion
City of Palm Springs offers displaced LA residents aid due to wildfires
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Biden proclamation officially designates Chuckwalla National Monument after delay
Riverside County board receives report on condition of fire resources amid Santa Ana winds
By City News Service
By City News Service
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The Orocopia Mountains are part of the new Chuckwalla National Monument in the Inland Empire. | Photo courtesy of Protect Chuckwalla National Monument
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resident Joe Biden on Tuesday announced the creation of a national monument south of Joshua Tree National Park in Riverside County. The Chuckwalla National Monument will create the largest corridor of protected lands in the continental United States, covering nearly 18 million acres stretching approximately 600 miles. White House officials were calling it the capstone environmental achievement in Biden's administration. Biden and first lady Jill Biden arrived in Los Angeles on Jan. 7 for a planned announcement in Riverside County the following day, but the wildfires and powerful Santa Ana winds that erupted in Los Angeles County forced the event to
he "unprecedented" Santa Ana windstorms of the last week are impacting Riverside County residents and burdening emergency resources, but the county remains prepared for contingencies, officials told the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday. "We're all working together (in the region), and we've been crushing it," Riverside County Fire Department Chief Bill Weiser said of the county's response to local wildfires. "These are extreme weather events." Emergency Management Department Director Bruce Barton told the board the "unprecedented weather" that began on Jan. 7 has been challenging countywide, but nothing compared to what has transpired in Los Angeles County stemming mainly from the Eaton and Palisades fires. "Our hearts go out to everybody in Los Angeles County, enduring the incredible destruction going on there," Barton said. "That will be a Herculean effort as far as recovery goes." The offshore winds haven't produced anything locally that is remotely comparable to the widespread ruin experienced in Los Angeles County, but the EMD director said electricity outages implemented by utilities have been hard on some pockets of Riverside County. See Winds Page 28
be canceled. According to the White House, Biden ranks first among all presidents in total area of land and water protection. "The new monument will enhance the connectivity of wildlife habitat and safeguard clean water for more than 40 million people by protecting the Colorado River region, while providing exceptional outdoor recreation opportunities for historically underserved communities in the Coachella Valley," the White House stated in news release. The new Moab to Mojave Conservation Corridor is designated to protect wildlife habitats and a wide range of natural and cultural resources along the Colorado River, across the
Colorado Plateau, and into the deserts of California. The corridor stretches from Bears Ears National Monument and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in southwestern Utah through Baaj Nwaavjo I'tah Kukveni — Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument in Arizona and Avi Kwa Ame National Monument in Nevada, both established by Biden in 2023. It extends to the desert and mountain regions of southwest California in the Coachella Valley and the Chuckwalla National Monument. Biden's proclamation will establish a Chuckwalla National Monument south of Joshua Tree National Park, See Chuckwalla Page 27
making drilling, mining and other energy- and industrial-related activity illegal in the area. Biden also made a similar proclamation for land surrounding the Sáttítla National Monument in Northern California. Having previously advocated in Washington, D.C., for Biden to issue such a designation, Southern California tribal leaders spoke last year about their desire to protect the homelands of the Iviatim, Nüwü, Pipa Aha Macav, Kwatsáan and Maara'yam peoples, also known as the Cahuilla, Chemehuevi, Mohave (CRIT Mohave), Quechan and Serrano nations. "Since time immemo-
Riverside County supervisors OK sheriff's capital improvement projects By City News Service
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he Board of Supervisors Tuesday approved four capital improvement projects initiated by Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco at a total estimated cost of $2.69 million. The sheriff requested — and the board unanimously authorized — allocation of funds from the departmental account established at the start of the fiscal year to pay for the projects, the largest of which is a major security upgrade to the lobby entrance at sheriff's headquarters in downtown Riverside. The price tag, based on best estimates, will come to about $1.1 million, Undersheriff Don Sharp told Supervisor Jose Medina, who sought more details for public transparency. "The reason for that project is because it's an older See Sheriff Page 15