A century ago, a handful of Indian tribes in North County lost their water as settlers began drying up the San Luis Rey River. For 50 years, the tribes fought to get back their water — water that’s used today by Escondido and Vista. They spent over a decade in lower courts and in 1984 took a fruitless trip to the Supreme Court. Several years of negotiations went nowhere and a 1988 act of Congress intended to settle the matter instead caused more confusion. That led to another decade of negotiations, and then yet another act of Congress in 2016 to clear things up. Another several months passed while the paperwork was completed.

Wet roads greeted San Diegans for the morning commute on Thursday as the second in a series of winter storms dumped rain on many parts of the county. The National Weather Service said the showers will be ending this morning with just a few showers lingering along the coastal mountain slopes this afternoon. Additional rainfall amounts will be light, according to the NWS. The storm responsible for the rainfall has brought cooler weather to the region with slightly below-average temperatures expected through Friday.

The San Diego County Water Authority will save approximately $100,000 per year with commercial-scale batteries installed at the agency’s Twin Oaks Valley Water Treatment Plant near San Marcos. The energy storage system is designed to reduce operational costs at the facility by storing low-cost energy for use during high-demand periods when energy prices increase. The batteries were installed at no charge to the Water Authority as part of an agreement with Santa Clara-based ENGIE Storage, a division of ENGIE North America, formerly known as Green Charge.