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City Returns $3.7 Million For Smart Water Meter Program

/in , , , /by /NBC 7 San Diegoby Dorian Hargrove and Consumer Bob

The City of San Diego has agreed to return more than $3.7 million to the city’s sewer fund which it took to pay for a citywide conversion to wireless water meters. The refund was made in hopes of ending a lawsuit filed by a ratepayer who said the city was charging the 8,500 sewage customers who do not use city water in order to help pay for the $67 million conversion to Advanced Metering Infrastructure, or AMI. The new meters will allow ratepayers to monitor their current water usage as well as make it easier to check for leaks. At the same time, the city’s water department would benefit in reducing meter reading errors and cut down on employee hours.

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Rep. Scott Peters Releases “Climate Playbook” As Alternative To Green New Deal

/in , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby Joshua Emerson Smith

Rep. Scott Peters, D-San Diego, released Wednesday what he’s calling a “climate playbook” — a list of more than 50 pieces of legislation introduced by Democrats as well as Republicans since 2017. The congressman said revisiting bipartisan ideas to rein in climate change is a better use of time than focusing on the Green New Deal, a wide-ranging resolution aimed at wiping out greenhouse emissions by 2030 and creating new jobs.

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Five Years Later, Effects Of Colorado River Pulse Flow Still Linger

/in , , /by /KPBS (San Diego)by Luke Runyon

From inside a small airplane, tracing the Colorado River along the Arizona-California border, it’s easy to see how it happened. As the river bends and weaves through the American Southwest, its contents are slowly drained. Concrete canals send water to millions of people in Phoenix and Tucson, Los Angeles and San Diego. Farms, ribbons of green contrasted against the desert’s shades of brown, line the waterway. Further downstream, near Yuma, Arizona, the river splits into threads, like a frayed piece of yarn. A massive multi-state plumbing system sends its water to irrigate the hundreds of thousands of farm acres in southern California and Arizona, hubs for winter vegetables, alfalfa, cotton and cattle.

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The Water Shortage Is Over, So Can La Jolla Shower Like It’s 1999?

/in , , /by /La Jolla Lightby Corey Levitan

Last month, California emerged from drought conditions for the first time since December 11, 2011, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor, breaking a 376-week streak. In response, the California Department of Water Resources increased the amount of water delivered from its State Water Project storage system from 35 percent of contractor requests, which it announced in February, to 70 percent. So can La Jolla residents similarly up their water use? That’s the last thing they should do, experts say, and it explains why munipical drought restrictions — three-day weekly lawn-watering, recycled water for ornamental fountains, water served in restaurants only upon request — have not and will not be lifted.

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Shadow Of Drought: Southern California’s Looming Water Crisis

/in , /by /KCET (Burbank, Calif.)

While California recovers from the worst drought in state history, a myriad of impacts resulting from climate change threaten Southern California’s imported water supply. As a shadow of drought hangs over the region, this documentary explores the dire consequences of inaction that lie ahead.

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City College Prof Collects Rainwater On Mt. Helix

/in , /by /San Diego Readerby Dryw Keltz

Chris Baron purchased a home on Mt. Helix in 2007. The house sat on a half-acre of land, so he would have a rather large canvas to work with when it came to landscaping. He had some native plants early on and eventually bought some fruit trees. He wanted to plant more trees, but watering was expensive. To make matters worse, the state was in the midst of the 2012-2017 drought. In order to increase his orchard, he would have to think creatively. With the help of a friend who had some experience, he stepped into the soggy realm of rainwater collection.

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In Bid For Cleaner Water, California Seeks Arranged Utility Marriages

/in , /by /Circle of Blue (Traverse City, Mich.)by Brett Walton

Michael Salazar, in his mid-fifties and on government disability, is the reluctant president of South Kern Mutual Water Company. The tiny nonprofit enterprise supplies drinking water from a single well tainted by toxic substances to 15 homes in an unincorporated community just outside this city’s southern boundary, where almond orchards unfurl toward the horizon. The outgoing president, Sherry Settlemoir, who lives across the street, stepped down at the beginning of 2018 because the duties of the troubled water company were overwhelming. She had to file regulatory paperwork and administrative reports, collect bills, do basic maintenance, and pay contractors. Besides, she has an ill father in Oklahoma to take care of.

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Olivenhain Municipal Water District Designated as State’s Medium Recycled Water Agency Of The Year

/in , , /by /California Water News Daily

Olivenhain Municipal Water District (OMWD) was recognized late last month as the medium-sized Agency of the Year by the WaterReuse Association of California. The award honors OMWD’s development of local and regional recycled water resources that conserve potable water, as well as its leadership and its outreach to legislators, regulators, and large irrigators. OMWD was previously recognized by the WaterReuse Association in 2005 as the small-sized Agency of the Year for having significantly expanded its recycled water distribution system. That system is currently generating 14 percent of the district’s demands with recycled water.

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OPINION: SB307 Goes Against California’s Water Needs

/in , /by /The Press-Enterprise (Riverside)

California is finishing one of its rainiest winters in decades, which leaves most of us pining for less water rather than more of it. But it wasn’t long ago the state was facing a devastating and persistent drought. Rain comes and goes, but this mostly arid state still has a growing population. There’s continual need for new water resources. That’s why we’re disappointed that Sen. Richard Roth, D-Riverside, and Assemblywoman Laura Friedman, D-Glendale, have reintroduced legislation designed to cripple a long-planned water project in the Mojave Desert. Senate Bill 307 prohibits water transfers unless two agencies agree that the transfers do not harm state and federal desert lands.

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San Jose Water Bills Could Go Up, Despite Years Of Conservation Efforts

/in , /by /Fox KTVU (San Jose)by Kristin J. Bender

When California’s historic drought mandated that residents take shorter showers, cut back on watering their lawns and give up washing their cars, folks in San Jose did their part to save water. At the start of the drought in 2014, then Gov. Jerry Brown set down a 20 percent reduction target (from 2013 levels) for urban water suppliers. San Jose Water Company hit the mark every year from 2015 to 2018. Further, the water company put in place a “critical water reduction plan” in order to meet a 30 percent water-use reduction goal set by the Santa Clara Valley Water District and residents nearly achieved that goal during 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018.

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