Residential greywater systems are now legal in California, and most modest residential installations don’t ever require a permit. But exactly how the changed rules are being implemented remains a little murky.

Sonoma County PRMD deputy director Duane Starnes explains why diverting laundry water outflow to a greywater reservoir also requires some additional changes to the household’s existing plumbing, such as the diversion valve shown at right.

Art Ludwig, a long-time advocate for legalizing greywater systems, says the state’s new rules allowing them carry an almost symbolic significance that extends well beyond mere plumbing.

Ludwig's Oasis Design website has detailed and illustrated instructions on how to install a "laundry to landscape" greywater system.

The Bay Area's Greywater Guerrillas are another online resource.

Legislation to commit California’s utilities to a higher standard for developing and using renewable energy is heading for a final decision in Sacramento.

State Senator Joe Simitian (D-San Mateo) left, the author of SB 14, says his measure offers multiple benefits, including some that extend well beyond California.

Glynnis Hokenson,  Kate Goltermann and Bret Fanshaw (l-r) from the  Environment California Research and Policy Center in Sacramento,  brought the white wind turbine mock-up to the steps of Santa Rosa City Hall last week to call attention to their campaign in support of the "Triple It" bill to increase California's requirements for new, renewable energy sources.

Go here to read an analysis of SB 14 by the Consumer Federation of California.

Both bills are also being supported by the California League of Conservation Voters.

Public support for a government-run “public option” health care plan is growing, says Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey, and it has her strong backing, too.

Public support for a single-payer system has long been strong across the nation, Woolsey says, and that is now translating into support for the public option concept, even among elected officials.

The Progressive Caucus of House Democrats will be a strong and united voice behind the public option, Woolsey predicts, because on this issue they have started out in agreement on what must be done.

Congresswoman Woolsey has spelled out her position on the pending health care reform issue in op-ed pieces in the Marin Independent Journal and the Santa Rosa Press Democrat.

Listen below to hear the full 30-minute KRCB interview that was broadcast August 28th.

As the above graph shows, Health Care Reform  means different things to different people. The figures are based on a survey conduceted by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, which has also developed a n interactive website where you can do your own side-by-side comparison of the various health care report plans that have been put forward.

Amending Proposition 13 to assess commercial properties differently than residential property would not just raise more money for cash-strapped California, it would also address the inherent unfairness in the 31-year old initiative.

Corporate property owners have gotten increasingly sophisticated in the legal mechanisms they use to mask or avoid reporting changes of ownership of their commercial lands, and those tactics result in the loss of several million dollars of tax revenue to Sonoma County every year, says Chief Deputy Assessor Bill Rousseau (right) . He advocates legislation to rein in those maneuvers.

Business interests and other defenders of Proposition 13 often assert that changing the way commercial properties are assessed would lead to increases costs for small businesses. But San Francisco Assessor Phil Ting notes that the same logic has not seemed to apply to the savings that commercial landowners have been reaping from their underassessed properties.

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