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Farm To Table Event Highlights San Diego County Products

/in , /by /The Water News Network

Many people don’t realize that a lot of the produce they buy at grocery stores or enjoy in local restaurants is grown right here in San Diego County. In fact, the county is home to more than 5,500 local farms and a $4.8 billion regional agriculture industry fueled by safe and reliable water supplies from the Water Authority and its 24 member agencies. Thursday’s event, called “Graze at the Fields,” is an opportunity for the community to connect with farmers. In addition to enjoying hand-crafted samples and beverages, guests will have a chance to talk with local growers and purveyors to learn about all that goes into producing the finest and freshest local farm products.

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Drought Will Become The Norm By Mid-Century As The Planet Warms

/in , , /by /Long Beach Postby Kelly Puente

In a sea of grassy lawns in Long Beach’s Rose Park neighborhood, Susan Moffett’s yard is a drought-tolerant retreat dotted with lavender, rosemary and pink-flowered abutilon plants. Originally from the Midwest, Moffett grew up with suburban green lawns, but as a landscape designer, she said drought tolerant plants are the necessity in Southern California. “A lot of people don’t realize the magnitude of our water shortage,” she said. “We all have a responsibility to conserve water.” One particularly perilous effect of climate change is the fact that Southern California is expected to become much hotter and drier in the coming decades.

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Colorado River Drought Plan Could Improve Local Drought Resilience

/in , , /by /Grand Junction Daily Sentinel (Grand Junction, Colo.)by Hannah Holm

Even as successive snowstorms obliterated drought conditions in the state of Colorado, the states that share the Colorado River put the final touches on a plan to use less water. On March 19, representatives from California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Wyoming, Utah and Colorado asked Congress to approve their “Drought Contingency Plan.” Congressed obliged, and President Trump added his signature on April 16. The lightning speed with which the Drought Contingency Plan was approved in contentious Washington, D.C. reflects the plan’s importance. Over the past two decades, water use from the river has regularly exceed inputs from snow and rain, leading water levels in Lakes Mead and Powell to drop perilously low.

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Cal Am Desal Plant Project Goes To Monterey County Planning Commission

/in , /by /Monterey Heraldby Jim Johnson

Considered by many the key to long-running efforts to cut unauthorized pumping from the Carmel River, California American Water’s proposed desalination plant project is headed to the Monterey County Planning Commission next week. On Wednesday, the commission is set to conduct a public hearing on a combined development permit for the proposed 6.4-million-gallon-per-day desal plant on Charlie Benson Road off Del Monte Boulevard north of Marina. The commission is charged with considering a use permit and administrative permit and design approval, for the desal plant and related facilities based on consideration of a combined environmental impact report and environmental impact statement certified by the California Public Utilities Commission in September.

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Endangered Wetlands Offer Vital Wildlife Habitat And A Reason To Fight About Coastal Development

/in , /by /Daily Breeze (Torrance, Calif.)by Martin Wisckol

Between Southern California’s popular beaches and much-traversed mountain trails lies an unsung natural landscape, teeming with its own special wildlife. As you head outdoors to celebrate Earth Day weekend — or to simply connect with nature and leave behind the anxieties of urban life — one option is our area’s often overlooked coastal wetlands. In Orange and Los Angeles counties, more than 90 percent of the estuaries, lagoons and other coastal waters that existed in the 19th century have been lost to roads, buildings and other development. But what remains provides a crucial habitat for resident animals and migrating birds, including several endangered species.

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California And The West Prepare To Get By On Less Water From The Colorado River

/in , , /by /Berkeley Newsby John Hickey

A century of water management in the western United States is on the verge of being restructured and two UC Berkeley water experts approve. Under a plan recently passed by Congress, the U.S. Secretary of the Interior is charged with implementing an agreement among seven states — Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming — in which each agrees to take less water from the Colorado River. The plan, more than two years in the making, now is headed to the desk of President Donald Trump for his signature.

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Ensuring that spray heads are properly tuned and far enough away from buildings or impermeable surfaces helps maximize your water efficiency. Photo: California Department of Water Resources

Put Your Irrigation to the Test

/in , /by

Turn on each valve of your irrigation system, and observe how quickly water begins to run off your landscaping. Note the time when each runoff occurs. For some systems, this could be immediately. For others it may take as long as five minutes.

Make sure that the spray irrigation is never running for longer than eight minutes at any one time.

Take notes on your irrigation plan, and turn off your irrigation until you are able to fix the follow issues:

• Do you have broken sprinkler heads?
• Are there heads that are blocked by plants or objects such as planters or lights?
• When the system turns off, does water come out of the lowest heads in the landscape?
• Are any heads in need of adjustment to they don’t directly spray onto the hardscape, such as sidewalks or patios?

Adjust your sprinklers to eliminate runoff

Several things can be done to minimize runoff due to irrigation. This is among the most important factors in using irrigation efficiently.

• Tune up spray irrigation systems so there is no overspray on hard surfaces
• Do not install spray irrigation in areas that are too narrow (generally eight feet wide or narrower)
• Move spray heads 24 inches away from buildings or impermeable surfaces
• Convert spray systems to micro or drip irrigation with the lower precipitation rates, pressure regulation and a filter
• In lawn areas, be sure to follow the organic maintenance practices to keep your soil ‘spongy’
• Replace standard overhead sprayers with high-efficiency rotator nozzles, or other types of low precipitation rate nozzles

Staying on top of your irrigation system can mean the difference between maximizing your water efficiency and unknowingly wasting water running down sidewalks unused into the storm drain.


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.

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Cancer-Causing Chemical Taints Water After California Blaze

/in , /by /AP News

The drinking water in Paradise, California, where 85 people died last year in the nation’s worst wildfire in a century, is contaminated with the cancer-causing chemical benzene, officials said. Officials said they believe the contamination happened after the November firestorm created a toxic combination of gases in burning homes that got sucked into the water pipes as residents and firefighters drew water heavily, the Sacramento Bee newspaper reported Thursday. Officials say that may explain why benzene, which has been linked to anemia and leukemia, has been found in tests at various spots rather than from one source in Paradise, which was largely destroyed.

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Secretive ‘Harbor Master’ Steers Colorado River Campaign

/in , /by /E&E News (Washington, D.C.)by Jeremy P. Jacobs

For six years, a coordinated campaign has fought to save the Colorado River, influencing policy decisions like a recent interstate drought plan. But you can’t find it on Google. The Colorado River Sustainability Campaign has been an important behind-the-scenes player for environmentalists working on the waterway, which provides water to 40 million people. It is housed at the New Venture Fund, a tax-exempt charity based in Washington, D.C., that funnels money to dozens of advocacy campaigns on a variety of issues. There is no mention of the Colorado River Sustainability Campaign on the fund’s website, or anywhere in its tax filings. And those tax returns are opaque.

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Imperial Irrigation District Sues To Block Colorado River Drought Plan

/in , , /by /The Los Angeles Timesby Bettina Boxall

Just as a long-negotiated agreement for how California and six other Western states will deal with drought on the Colorado River was about to cross the finish line, the river’s biggest user put up a roadblock. The Imperial Irrigation District in southeast California filed a lawsuit Tuesday asking a state court to block the plan until more analysis is done on the accord’s environmental impacts.

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