The Claude “Bud” Lewis Carlsbad Desalination Plant maintained an investment grade rating in the latest report from Fitch Ratings.
The rating affirms the plant’s sound financial management and its ability to provide a stable, reliable source of drinking water to the San Diego region, according to a press release.
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Dennis Hutson’s rows of alfalfa, melons, okra and black-eyed peas are an oasis of green in the dry terrain of Allensworth, an unincorporated community in rural Tulare County. Hutson, currently cultivating on 60 acres, has a vision for many more fields bustling with jobs. “This community will forever be impoverished and viewed by the county as a hamlet,” he says, “unless something happens that can create an economic base. That’s what I’m trying to do.”
While he scours his field for slender pods of ripe okra, three workers, community members he calls “helpers,” mind the irrigation station: 500-gallon water tanks and gurgling ponds at the head of each row, all fed by a 720-foot-deep groundwater well.
The Water Blueprint for the San Joaquin Valley recently presented recommendations for the Water Resilience Portfolio in response to Governor Newsom’s Executive Order. The information sent to the Governor’s office highlights some of issues facing water security in the San Joaquin Valley. Some of the Blueprint coalition participants include the California Farm Bureau Federation, Western Growers Association, California Citrus Mutual, and Dairy Farmers of America.
In a major step toward the potential construction of one of the largest water recycling plants in the nation, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California and the Sanitation Districts of Los Angeles County were joined today by federal, state and local water leaders to celebrate the start of operations at the Regional Recycled Water Advanced Purification Center.
The 500,000-gallon-per-day demonstration facility takes cleaned wastewater from the Sanitation Districts’ Joint Water Pollution Control Plant and purifies it using an innovative process that could significantly improve efficiencies and reduce costs in water recycling.
A body trapped inside a pump station in Tijuana prevented a pump station from diverting sewage south. That caused more than 14 million gallons of sewage to spill across the U.S.-Mexico border over the weekend, federal officials said.
The spill started around 9 p.m. Sunday night and continued until 8 a.m. Monday morning, according to the International Boundary and Water Commission. The trans-boundary flows included treated and untreated sewage.
The City of Oceanside is joining the City of San Diego and East San Diego County in adding advanced purified water to its drinking water supply. The Pure Water Oceanside project is expected to break ground next spring and begin producing advanced purified water in 2022.
The Padre Dam Municipal Water District, Helix Water District and the City of San Diego, are among the water agencies in San Diego County that are developing or expanding water recycling to increase the local water supply.
Encinitas, CA—As part of its continued efforts to reduce potable water demand, Olivenhain Municipal Water District is co-hosting a free graywater workshop with partners San Dieguito Water District and Solana Center for Environmental Innovation. Participants will learn how to build a branched drain system step-by-step. The workshop will be held at the Encinitas Community Center from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. on October 22.
Gaze across the Salton Sea, a sparkling oasis in the California desert, and you’ll see white plumes of steam rising against the hazy Chocolate Mountains.
The steam comes from 11 geothermal power plants, nestled between the accidental lake and the verdant farm fields of the Imperial Valley. The area has been churning out climate-friendly geothermal energy since the 1980s, long before solar panels and wind turbines became cheap and abundant.
Our electric grid is outdated. For those of us in the renewable sector, this is not a new concept, and it is a national problem, not just one here in California. But unfortunately, the ramifications of an antiquated grid have now been felt by millions of Californians plunged into darkness by these forced power outages. Today, the world is watching to see how California, a historic leader when it comes to environmental initiatives and energy policy, overcomes this potentially recurring problem.
The Alameda County Water District is considering shelling out $72 million for a fourth-generation, 50,500-acre cattle ranch — touted as the largest potential land sale in the state — to preserve water quality, officials say.
Much of the property lies in watersheds that feed into critical water supply facilities for millions of Bay Area residents, including Lake Del Valle, Calaveras Reservoir and Alameda Creek.
While no final decisions have been made, district officials and experts say the rare opportunity to buy such a wide swath of undeveloped upstream land — and preclude any future development that could degrade potable water — must be seriously weighed.
