You are now in Media Coverage San Diego County category.

OPINION: How Coronado Is Advocating For Tijuana Sewage Solutions

Last week, representatives of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, International Boundary and Water Commission, and other federal offices gathered in Coronado to address one of the most pressing environmental issues in our region — solutions to the Tijuana sewage problem and the resulting contamination that regularly inundates San Diego County beaches. Since early 2018, the city of Coronado has played a significant role in advocating for funding for water quality improvement projects in the border zone, including Tijuana and points south.

OPINION: Faulconer’s Welcome Housing Plan Also Helps With Climate Change

In the state Capitol, the response to California’s chronic housing shortage this year has been hugely disappointing. A bold proposal to make it easier to put up new apartment buildings and condos near mass transit and in single-family neighborhoods was abruptly killed last month by Sen. Anthony Portantino, D-La Cañada Flintridge, the chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee. State lawmakers continue to focus on subsidized “affordable housing” projects despite the years of evidence that this approach does little or nothing to bring down the high cost of housing in the Golden State.

Helix Water District Board Approves 2019-20 Budget

The Helix Water District governing board last week approved an operating budget of nearly $91 million for the 2019-20 fiscal year that begins July 1. The budget includes $11.5 million in capital improvements to keep the water moving through Helix’s 700-plus miles of pipeline, valves, hydrants and meters, and safely stored in tanks at the district’s various plants around East County. Total costs, including capital expenses and water purchases, will go up by about $1.2 million compared to 2018-19.

Annual San Diego ‘Quality of Life Dashboard’ Shows Improvements In 6 Categories

A respected annual quality of life report for San Diego released Wednesday showed improvements in six areas, but declines in four. The biggest issues in this year’s Quality of Life Dashboard were housing affordability and traffic congestion, though slight increases in water use and landfill waste were also noted. “Commuters in 2018 spent more than eight hours extra on the freeways, nearly an hour more than in 2016,” according to the report.

Activists Say Grebe Eggs And Chicks Dying At Lake Hodges Due To Water Pumping

Lake Hodges is home to a lot of wildlife including Grebes – the black and white birds that can be seen year-round, but some say their nests are being destroyed over something that’s completely preventable. Brian Caldwell, a nearby resident and operator of Lake Hodges Photo Tours, visits the area often. Over the past couple of years, he has noticed an alarming trend.

Local Jurisdictions Oppose Plan To Restore Endangered Trout Population, Raise Water Rights Concerns

An attempt to restore the population of endangered Southern California steelhead trout living in the Santa Ynez River is being opposed by some jurisdictions that rely on the river and Cachuma Lake for their water supply. The number of trout, which travel to and from the ocean throughout their lifecycle, in the river began declining after the construction of Bradbury Dam on Cachuma Lake in 1953. Prior to construction, there were about 20,000 adult fish living in the Santa Ynez River, but with the dam limiting their ability to travel to and from the ocean, the population dropped to 100 adult fish by 1991, according to the State Water Resources Control Board.

California’s Clean Drinking Water Problem

In Gov. Gavin Newsom’s first State of the State address, he urged every Californian to muster the political will to address a problem he called “a moral disgrace and … a medical emergency.” He was talking about California’s water. An estimated 1 million people across the state have unhealthy water pouring from their taps, with regions like the San Joaquin Valley especially impacted. Governor Newsom’s so-called “water tax” would have taxed residential water customers and certain agricultural industries to fund solutions to this problem for low-income communities. That plan didn’t make it through budget negotiations. The same budget talks produced a different solution: to spend $130 million a year from California’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund on the water infrastructure problem.

High Heat Quickly Melting Away California’s Snowpack

That excessive heat warning into the foothills is doing a number on the impressive snowpack in the Sierra. With temperatures in the 80s, what took weeks to melt is now taking days. “We found a little bit of snow and we were excited because it was a novelty. But then we realized it was everywhere, said Josh Jameison. Jameison and his girlfriend Megan didn’t expect to see so much snow as they set off for a hike. “The snow is a lot higher than previous years because I am usually out here on the first, and it’s still pretty bad,” she said. But snow on Loch Leven Trail during their midday hike didn’t last long.

Salt Creek Golf Course Is Now Available To Developers

The Otay Water District plans to offer up the old Salt Creek Golf Course to developers. In May, the district prepared a list of about 40 regional developers it plans to notify about the availability of the 164-acre plot of land off Hunte Parkway just east of State Route 125. The decision to sell to developers comes more than a year since the unprofitable golf course shut down in March 2018, leaving Chula Vista’s golfers with one less place to play. At the time of Salt Creek’s closure, operators owed the Otay Water District more than $21,000 – this was after the district had already reduced their annual rent by roughly $118,000, records show.

On Stressed Colorado River, States Test How Many More Diversions Watershed Can Bear

The Colorado River is short on water. But you wouldn’t know it by looking at a slate of proposed water projects in the river’s Upper Basin states of Colorado, Utah and Wyoming. The river and its tributaries provide water for 40 million people in the Southwest. For about the last 20 years, demand for water has outstripped the supply, causing its largest reservoirs to decline. In the Bureau of Reclamation’s 2012 Colorado River Basin Water Supply and Demand Study, you can pinpoint when the lines crossed somewhere around the year 2002. It’s a well-documented and widely accepted imbalance.