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Montecito Water, Sanitary Districts Signal Readiness to Work Together on Recycled Water Project

/in , /by /Noozhawk (Santa Barbara)by Giana Magnoli

Recycled water may be on its way to Montecito. The Montecito Water District’s long-range plans set goals of having 85-percent of its supplies come from “local, reliable, drought-proof” sources by 2025, including desalination, groundwater banking, and recycled water. It depends heavily on surface water now, from the State Water Project, Lake Cachuma, and to a lesser extent its Jameson Reservoir. Lowered allocations during the drought have caused MWD to purchase supplemental water from outside the region.

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Environment Report: County Penalized for Sewage Spill Into Local River

/in , /by /Voice of San Diegoby Ry Rivard

San Diego County has agreed to pay nearly $700,000 for a pipeline rupture that dumped raw sewage into a San Diego River tributary. The spill sent about 760,000 gallons of sewage into Los Coches Creek in February and March 2017, violating the federal Clean Water Act, among other state and federal rules. Those rules allowed the Regional Water Quality Control Board to penalize the county up to $7.8 million, but instead the county and regulators agreed to settle. The resulting fines amount to less than 90 cents per gallon of the spilled sewage.

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City Won’t Say How $3B Pure Water Project Will Affect Customers’ Bills

/in , /by /Voice of San Diegoby Ry Rivard

San Diego is in the midst of spending roughly $3 billion on a massive new water treatment system, but city officials can’t or won’t tell customers how that will affect their water bills. New water recycling plants will eventually purify enough sewage to provide a third of the city’s drinking water. In November, the City Council approved the first, $1.4 billion phase of the project. Water bills will rise, that much is certain. Yet, officials in Mayor Kevin Faulconer’s administration are refusing to estimate by how much.

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