You are now in Media Coverage San Diego County category.

SDCWA Approves Conjunctive Use Project Subsidy

The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California has a subsidy program for projects which produce local supply, and if MWD approves the agreement Sept. 10 the Fallbrook Public Utility District will receive a subsidy for the Santa Margarita River Conjunctive Use Project. FPUD’s board approved the agreement on a 5-0 vote July 22 and the San Diego County Water Authority board approved the agreement July 25. “It will help further reduce the cost of water for the project, which will help further reduce the cost of water for our ratepayers,” said FPUD general manager Jack Bebee.

FPUD To Prepare Community Benefit Latent Powers Application

The Fallbrook Public Utility District will be preparing an application for San Diego County’s Local Agency Formation Commission which would allow FPUD to expand its latent powers to provide for public community facilities. FPUD’s board voted 5-0 July 22 to authorize the preparation of the application to LAFCO, although the application itself will be reviewed prior to a separate FPUD vote. “The board reaffirmed the decision to move forward based on the request of those groups,” said FPUD general manager Jack Bebee. FPUD’s May 2018 meeting included a presentation by the Fallbrook Chamber of C…

Arizona, Nevada Cuts To Colorado River Water Negligible

Arizona and Nevada will face their first-ever cuts in Colorado River water next year, but the changes aren’t expected to be overly burdensome for either state. The water is delivered through Lake Mead, one of the largest manmade reservoirs in the country that straddles the Arizona-Nevada border. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation said Thursday that Lake Mead barely will fall below 1,090 feet (332 meters) on Jan. 1, triggering cuts for the junior users in the river’s lower basin, at 1,089.4 (332 meters) above sea level. For Arizona, that means less water for underground storage, recharging aquifers and for agricultural use. About 7% of its 2.8 million acre-feet, or 192,000 acre-feet, will be left behind Lake Mead.

Plan For Public Buyout Of Local Cal Am Water System Set For MPWMD Board Review

A written plan for acquisition and ownership of California American Water’s local water system, and perhaps other privately owned local systems, is headed to the Monterey Peninsula Water Management District board for review. Released on Friday, the 15-page plan authored by water district general manager Dave Stoldt outlines a recommended approach to meet the district’s formal policy of pursuing public control of all “water production, storage and delivery assets and infrastructure,” as established by voter-approved Measure J. The plan was written to comply with the district’s public ownership rule requiring a written plan within nine months of the rule’s effective date in December last year, and the presentation to the board is considered informational with no action recommended.

SMUD Set To Buy PG&E’s Only Hydroelectric Powerhouse On The American River For $10.4 Million

The Sacramento Municipal Utility District is moving forward with plans to buy a hydroelectric powerhouse and reservoir from Pacific Gas and Electric Co. for $10.4 million. In a joint statement, the local utility providers announced that the Chili Bar Hydroelectric Project — a dam, reservoir, spillway and powerhouse that generates electricity north of Placerville on the South Fork of the American River — would be changing hands after SMUD’s board of directors voted Thursday evening to greenlight the purchase. The purchase is expected to be finalized in 2020.

Newsletter: The Uncertain Fate Of The San Fernando Valley’s Last Remaining Commercial Citrus Grove

Fifteen thousand acres of citrus groves once blanketed the San Fernando Valley, but now just a single commercial citrus grove remains, a half-mile from the 101 Freeway on the border of Tarzana and Woodland Hills. At 14 acres, Bothwell Ranch represents less than one-thousandth of what once was, before the orchards and ranches of the Valley gave way to tract housing, cul-de-sacs and two-car garages. Citrus production amid the multimillion-dollar homes is far from a viable occupation, and the Bothwell family put the property on the market earlier this summer. The $13.9-million real estate listing boasted of the potential for constructing 26 single-family homes on half-acre lots.

Caps On Groundwater Use Create A New Market In California

A long stretch of highway running between Los Angeles and San Francisco separates the dry hills to the west from the green plains of the San Joaquin Valley to the east, where much of America’s fruit, nuts and vegetables are grown. Every couple of miles billboards hint at the looming threat to the valley. “Is growing food a waste of water?” one billboard asks. Another simply says, “No Water, no Jobs”. In the San Joaquin Valley agriculture accounts for 18% of jobs and agriculture runs on water. Most of it comes from local rivers and rainfall, some is imported from the river deltas upstate, and the rest is pumped out of groundwater basins.

Desperate For New Water Supplies, SLO County Bets On Cloud-Seeding Program

It was the summer of 2015, and San Luis Obispo County was in the fourth year of severe drought with no rain in sight. Half-empty reservoirs were declining, the water table was noticeably dropping, farmers had fallowed fields. Water managers responsible for city and agricultural supplies frantically looked for possible emergency water sources if conditions got worse. Brian Talley, third-generation farmer and president of Talley Fields and Talley Vineyards in Arroyo Grande, made the tough call to plant fewer crops in the fields around Huasna Road after the wells used to irrigate the farm and vineyard “became very unproductive.”