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Power Company to Remove Oil Pipeline

An undersea oil pipeline that for more than 50 years supplied Carlsbad’s Encina power plant with fuel and helped keep the lights on across San Diego County soon will be history.

NRG/Cabrillo Power has applied to the California Coastal Commission for permission to remove the 20-inch-diameter steel-and-concrete pipeline that extends out from beneath the power plant on Carlsbad Boulevard more than half a mile into the ocean at a depth of roughly 60 feet.

California State Considers New Rules For Waste Water Recycling

California is moving forward with rules for how water districts can turn what goes down your toilet back into drinking water. State regulators are taking comments on a kind of water recycling where wastewater sits in a lake before being treated. Next up might be a way to skip the wait. The state already has rules in place for groundwater recharge – where wastewater goes in an aquifer and later comes out for drinking water. Randy Barnard heads the recycled-water unit for the State Water Resources Control Board. He says both aquifers and surface reservoirs act as ‘environmental buffers,’ killing pathogens and diluting chemicals.

BLOG: ‘The Blob’ Is Back: What Warm Ocean Mass Means for Weather, Wildlife

The blob is back. Since 2014, a mass of unusually warm water has hovered and swelled in the Pacific Ocean off the West Coast of North America, playing havoc with marine wildlife, water quality and the regional weather. Earlier this year, weather and oceanography experts thought it was waning. But no: The Blob came back, and it is again in position off the coast, threatening to smother normal coastal weather and ecosystem behavior. The Blob isn’t exactly to blame for California’s drought, though it certainly aggravated the problem.

California Drought: Is October Rain Making A Difference?

As California enters the sixth year of its historic drought, something unusual is happening: It’s raining. And raining. Rainfall is expected across much of the Bay Area again Sunday, with another storm coming Halloween night. Marin, Sonoma and other North Bay counties should get the biggest soaking. Meteorologists stress that it’s only the very beginning of California’s rainy season, so there are no guarantees that a wet October will bring a wet November, December, January or February. So far, though, October has been surprisingly wet across the northern part of the state, raising the hopes of drought-weary Californians.

 

In California, A $350 Million Social Experiment Over Lawns

California water agencies that spent more than $350 million in the last two years of drought to pay property owners to rip out water-slurping lawns are now trying to answer whether the nation’s biggest lawn removal experiment was all worth the cost. Around the state, water experts and water-district employees are employing satellite images, infrared aerial photos, neighborhood drive-bys and complex algorithms to gauge just how much grassy turf was removed. They also want to know whether the fortune in rebates helped turn California tastes lastingly away from emerald-green turf.

The Drought Eased Up, And These Californians Turned On The Spigot

The San Juan Water District showed the rest of California how to save water when the state needed the savings most. The supplier for eastern Sacramento and southern Placer counties cut consumption 41% from 2013 levels during the summer of 2015 — the height of a years-long drought. District residents let their acre-sized properties fade, livestock went thirsty, vineyards decayed. Then, the rain arrived. Regulators relaxed the rules and on went some spigots. This summer, the district used almost 600 million more gallons than it did last summer. Lacking a state mandate to conserve, residents’ daily consumption climbed to more than 500 gallons per person.

 

New Incentive Available For Sustainable Landscape Projects

The San Diego Sustainable Landscapes Program partnership is offering a new grant-funded financial incentive for qualified participants who upgrade residential turf lawns to landscapes that provide multiple environmental benefits. Incentive recipients are required to comply with a set of rigorous design criteria that includes water-efficient plants and irrigation equipment, rainwater capture and detention features, and soil amendments to improve water efficiency. Qualified applicants can receive up to $1.75 per square foot toward eligible project costs for upgrading 500 to 3,000 square feet of existing turf areas.

 

 

MarketInk: Veteran Political Consultants Form New Advertising/PR Agency

hree San Diego political consultants have formed a new advertising and PR agency offering public affairs consulting, strategic planning, coalition building and crisis communications services.Tony Manolatos, principal of Apex Strategies, has joined with Bob Nelson and Kelly Murphy Lamkin, principals of BNA Communications, to form Manolatos Nelson Murphy Advertising & Public Relations. The firm’s current list of clients includes 7-Eleven, Community Housing Works, the Greater San Diego Association of Realtors, the San Diego County Apartment Association and the San Diego County Taxpayers Association.

OPINION: Californians Must Recommit To Water Conservation

Recent news items raise concerns about California’s ongoing struggle to deal with the punishing drought. The Desert Sun’s Ian James reported this month that Coachella Valley water agencies have logged a huge drop in conservation compared to the great efforts seen during 2015 and the first half of this year. Coachella Valley Water District customers used just 4.3 percent less water in September than they did in September 2013, the benchmark year the state has been using to measure conservation.

Wet Fall Changes Everything For Northern California

One small change in the world has led to mind-blowing effects for Northern California, nature and the outdoor prospects for winter and the next year. That small change was a shift in mid-October in the location of the jet stream, the conveyor belt of storms. The deluges that have followed stopped a Tahoe fire, saturated soils, put many reservoirs at 100 percent of average for the date, fed wetlands in time for arriving waterfowl and shorebirds, and put ski parks in line for a chance at a big season. One of the best indicator sites is the weather station at the Blue Canyon airport, at 5,284 feet near Nyack along Interstate 80.