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Audit Report: San Diego City Faces Growing Backlog Of Broken Water-Meter Cases

/in , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby Joshua Emerson Smith

A growing backlog of broken water meter boxes and lids has plagued the San Diego Public Utilities Department — an agency still reeling from months of public outrage following spiking water bill throughout the city. That’s according to a recent report by the independent City Auditor’s Office, which found that agency “mismanagement” led to a backlog of more than 25,000 broken meter cases. The city has 281,500 such devices. The audit report stated: “We found that PUD’s delayed response to box and lid maintenance issues resulted from a lack of management oversight and accountability; a variety of process inefficiencies; and inadequate strategic planning.”

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Experts Warn California Still Unprepared For Future Droughts

/in , /by /SCV News (Santa Clarita, Calif.)by Nick Cahill

An atmospheric phenomenon lingered along the West Coast over a recent four-year stretch, sending winter storms north and preventing precious rain and snow from reaching California. Dubbed the “Ridiculously Resilient Ridge,” the high-pressure system made the Golden State bone-dry and moved Gov. Jerry Brown to make an unprecedented order requiring nearly 40 million Californians to slash water use in their homes. As the persistent ridge returned each winter from 2012 through 2016, it pushed California into the driest and hottest drought on record. The state’s famed snowpack vanished, hundreds of thousands of acres in its agricultural heartland wilted and critical water-delivery systems were tested like never before.

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Updated California Climate Tracker Tool Provides More Than 120 Years Of Climate Data

/in , /by /PHYS.org

Scientists from the Western Regional Climate Center (WRCC) at the Desert Research Institute (DRI) in Reno, Nev. are pleased to announce the release of a long-awaited update to a climate mapping tool called the California Climate Tracker. Originally launched in 2009, the California Climate Tracker was designed to support climate monitoring in California and allows users to generate maps and graphs of temperature and precipitation by region. The 2018 upgrade incorporates substantial improvements including a more user-friendly web interface, improved accuracy of information based on PRISM data, and access to climate maps and data that go back more than 120 years, to 1895.

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Maintenance Men Bring Home The Hardware From National Contest

/in , /by /Water News Network Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

Two maintenance pros representing San Diego brought home awards from the 2018 American Public Works Association’s National Roadeo Skills Competition in Kansas City, Missouri , in late August. The San Diego County Water Authority’s Bobby Bond Jr. placed second in the backhoe/mini-excavator event, while John Brown, also of the Water Authority, placed third in the skid steer competition. They are the only winners from west of the Rockies, and the only two winners from a single agency nationwide. A record number of 86 participants competed in three categories of competition: the backhoe/mini-excavator, skid steer, and mechanics.

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Crisis at Lake Powell Looms Large As Long-Term Drought Reaches Upstream

/in , /by /Water Deeply (New York)by Matt Weiser

Like rust slowly consuming the body of a car, drought has spread upstream on the Colorado River. The river’s Upper Basin – generally north of Lake Powell – has been largely insulated from the 19-year drought afflicting the giant watershed, thanks to the region’s relatively small water demand and heavy snows that bury Colorado’s 14,000ft peaks each winter. But this year, there was no salvation in the snowpack. Several major Colorado River tributaries – the Dolores, San Juan and Gunnison rivers – saw record-low snowpack this winter.

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Outlook Grim But Not Hopeless As Climate Summit Convenes In San Francisco

/in , /by /KQED (San Francisco)by Craig Miller

This week corporate and civic leaders from around the world will gather in San Francisco for the Global Climate Action Summit. The effort was spearheaded by Gov. Jerry Brown to move the fight against global warming beyond the national commitments made in Paris nearly three years ago. “Look, it’s up to you and it’s up to me and tens of millions of other people to get it together to roll back the forces of carbonization,” says Brown in a promotional video for the summit.

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OPINION: State Water Project: Our Most Important Infrastructure

/in , /by /Capitol Weekly (Sacramento, Calif.)by Jennifer Pierre

Ask me what tops the list of California’s most critical infrastructure, and I’ll tell you it’s the State Water Project. It’s hard to argue with the fact that water is a prerequisite for all life and a healthy economy. That’s why financing the operation and maintenance of the State Water Project in a responsible, cost-effective manner should be common sense — not a political volley that puts California’s lifeline at risk and threatens ratepayers with a surge in water rates that is easily avoidable.

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California To Go 100 Percent Carbon-Neutral

/in , /by /CBS Newsby Irina Ivanova

California Gov. Jerry Brown is aiming for the state to be carbon-neutral by 2045. Brown signed an executive order Monday announcing the goal to eliminate carbon emissions in the state within 27 years. He also signed a bill, SB100, making the state’s electricity completely emissions-free by 2045. The bill represents an ambitious move by the world’s fifth-largest economy. “It’s impossible to overstate how significant it is for a state as large and influential as California to commit to 100 percent clean energy,” the Sierra Club said in a statement.

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Drought Contingency Plan To Ease Pain Of Water Shortage

/in , /by /Mohave Valley Daily Newsby DK McDonald

Current weather patterns and Colorado River water management will result in a drought by the year 2020, affecting communities and farms along the entire Lower Basin, according to officials. Arizona’s water stakeholders, led by Arizona Department of Water Resources and Central Arizona Project, have been engaged for more than two months in crafting Arizona’s approach to the Lower Basin Drought Contingency Plan in an effort to protect Lake Mead, the reservoir formed by Hoover Dam, from falling to critical levels.

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Crowd Drinks In Water Fest In Santee

/in , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby Karen Pearlman

Several hundred residents poured into the East County Advanced Water Purification Demonstration Project Visitor Center on Fanita Parkway on Saturday to learn about recycled water. The Padre Dam Municipal Water District’s first East County Water Festival celebrated water and showed visitors how it recycles waste and turns it into drinkable water. The free event included a tour of the facility that cleans and purifies wastewater plus educational booths, food, snow cones and iced coffee beverages made using purified recycled water. People planted succulents in small plastic cups they could take home, kids got their faces painted and families posed with water-related props in a photo booth at the event.

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