Water and agriculture go hand in hand. Growing food for the planet’s people consumes 70 percent of its freshwater sources. Therefore, water is not only life-giving, it is life-sustaining. Yet with climate change, population growth and development on watersheds, an estimated 2 billion people globally face limited access to clean water. And demand for water is expected to grow by 30 percent globally by 2050.
The Imperial County Public Health Department announced Friday that cyanotoxins were found in the Salton Sea. In recent months, low levels of cyanobacteria, also known as blue-green algae, were detected blooming along the northern shore of the Salton Sea in Riverside County. Water testing conducted by the California Regional Water Quality Control Board have confirmed the presence of three cyanotoxins: Anatoxin-a, Saxitoxin and Microcystin at the Desert Shores Harbor of the Salton Sea.
For more than a few San Diego Gas & Electric customers, a summer of discontent has just wrapped up. Record heat in the San Diego area resulted in some residents seeing their monthly bills balloon and their complaints were compounded by a “high usage charge” the California Public Utilities Commission recently put in place. But that’s not the only issue. A year-over-year review by the Union-Tribune of electricity rate charges by the three investor-owned utilities shows SDG&E’s rates are not only higher than their cohorts but they have also been rising faster.
General Dynamics NASSCO – one of the San Diego region’s largest employers – hosted Water Authority Board Chair Jim Madaffer and Jesse Gipe, senior economic development manager for the San Diego Regional Economic Development Corp., for national Manufacturing Day on Oct. 5 as part of a partnership to promote the importance of a safe and reliable water supply to sustain the local economy. The partnership was forged during the Water Authority’s Brought to You by Water outreach and education program, which includes stakeholders from key industry sectors such as tourism, manufacturing, brewing and agriculture.
Plants and insects need each other to survive. Nature provides checks and balances in a garden. You can attract insects and creatures that help maintain the healthy balance of a garden without pesticides.
Flowering plants rely on insects for pollination, and thus reproduction. In turn plants feed and house insects. Some bugs eat too much, destroying their plant hosts and spreading disease. Other beneficial insects fight off the destructive species, eating them or disrupting their reproductive process.
Birds, bats and lizards help too, consuming pests both large and small.
Actively cultivating a diversity of plants in the landscape that flower at different times of the year attracts helpful insects and predators. It also improves the resilience of gardens and reduces the need for chemicals.
To attract more garden helpers, like mason bees and lizards, create habitat for them. Consider getting establishing a nesting box for bees. Leave a small rock pile for lizards to inhabit. Put a large tree branch in the garden and let it decompose naturally.
Many specific of native Verbenas are excellent choices to attract pollinators to your sustainable landscaping. Photo: WIkimedia Commons
There are many plants that support the lifecycle of butterflies. Try to use several in your garden to boost larvae and caterpillars as well as the full-grown, nectar seeking adults. Some good choices:
Narrow Leaf Milkweed (Asclepias fascicularis)
Island Alum Root (Heuchera maxima)
San Miguel Island Buckwheat (Eriogonum grande var. rubescens)
Cedros Island Verbena (Verbena lilacina)
Island Bush Snapdragon (Gambelia speciosa)
Not all ground needs to be covered in mulch. Try designating a five- to ten-square-foot patch of open ground for ground-nesting bees and insects, especially if your garden contains San Diego native plants.
This article was inspired by the 71-page Sustainable Landscapes Program guidebook available at SustainableLandscapesSD.org. The Water Authority and its partners also offer other great resources for landscaping upgrades, including free WaterSmart classes at WaterSmartSD.org.
The city of San Diego offers money-saving ways for water customers to conserve water. The city’s Public Utilities Department provides rebates through grant funding by the Department of Water Resources for removing lawns and installing rain barrels. Homeowners can apply now for financial rebates to convert their lawns into a drought resistant landscape. The city is offering a $1.25 per square foot rebate for all lawns that are converted. Converted areas must be designed to capture rainfall for reuse.
Valley Center Municipal Water District Board of Directors has taken formal action to declare October 6-14 as “Water and Wastewater Professionals Week,” along with hundreds of water and wastewater agencies statewide. Water and wastewater has long been described as the “silent service.” These systems providing these services are “out of sight, out of mind” as long as they work well, and the water comes out with the turn of the tap or the unmentionables are quickly taken away with a flush.
The board of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, a downtown-based water wholesale cooperative, selected local water official Gloria Gray as its new chair. Gray, who has represented the West Basin Municipal Water District on the 38-member Metropolitan board since 2009, will serve a two-year term beginning Jan. 1; she will succeed Randy Record, who has held the post since May 2014. Gray is the first African-American to lead the board and only the second woman to do so in the district’s 90-year history.
Oct. 10 marked the 15th anniversary of the signing of the Quantification Settlement Agreement (QSA). The QSA created the nation’s largest transfer of water from agriculture to cities, building resilience and buffering Southern California from the impacts of the state’s recent drought while decreasing California’s reliance on the increasingly stressed Colorado River.
If Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom is elected governor as expected, he’ll keep building the state’s two contentious public works projects: the bullet train and twin water tunnels. But he’ll scale back both. He’ll be more cautious, realistic and practical about the super-expensive projects than termed-out Gov. Jerry Brown.Newsom will concentrate on completing a high-speed rail line from the San Joaquin Valley to the San Francisco Bay Area.
