SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — California’s biggest utility shut off electricity to more than a million people Wednesday for what could be days on end, in the most sweeping effort in state history to prevent wildfires caused by windblown power lines. The move came after two years of catastrophic fires sent Pacific Gas & Electric into bankruptcy and forced it to take more aggressive steps to prevent blazes.
CHULA VISTA, Calif. (KGTV) – Residents in Chula Vista’s Eastlake community are worried about the growing number of dead fish that have washed ashore in recent weeks. The path around the lake off Lakeshore Drive is a popular spot to walk or run, but lately, it’s been anything but pleasant.
The National Weather Service office in San Diego warned residents that the first major Santa Ana wind event of the season will begin Wednesday night and continue through Friday. The weather service issued a fire weather watch amid a forecast of single-digit humidity and gusty winds of up to 60 mph.
The city of Oceanside is offering tours to experience Pure Water Oceanside, an innovative program that will purify recycled water to create a new local source of high-quality drinking water that is clean, safe, drought-proof and environmentally sound. Pure Water Oceanside will produce enough water to provide more than 32% of the city’s water supply, or 3-5 million gallons per day.
SOUTH COUNTY — For the first time in 11 years, the Sweetwater Authority has started to flush out all 400 miles of its pipelines across South County. Commonly referred to as flushing, because built-up sediments are “flushed out,” the system-wide cleaning is a promise the water agency made to its ratepayers last year as it put together a plan to increase rates over the next five years.
The Senate approved almost $20 million in funding to address sewage flows along the border. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who secured language in three different appropriations bills for the 2020 fiscal year, called the spills that send millions of gallons of raw sewage from Tijuana to San Diego, “unacceptable.”
The Claude “Bud” Lewis Carlsbad Desalination Plant maintains an investment grade rating in the latest report from Fitch Ratings, affirming the plant’s sound financial management and its ability to provide a stable, reliable source of drinking water to the San Diego region. As the largest, most technologically advanced and energy-efficient desalination plant in the nation, the Carlsbad Desalination Plant’s revenue stability stems from an effective collaboration between Poseidon Water and the San Diego County Water Authority.
Cities, counties and regional water districts throughout the Sacramento Valley and Bay Area are urging users to cut down on water use during Pacific Gas and Electric Co.’s public safety power shutoff, which has blacked out hundreds of thousands of customers since the early morning hours of Wednesday.
Fairfield authorities are urging residents to conserve water use after the city experienced a treatment plant issue that it is attributing to the PG&E shutoff.
Next month, the Northern California community of Paradise and will commemorate a somber anniversary: On Nov. 8, 2018, the town burned to the ground. Nearly 11,000 properties were erased in the deadliest, most destructive wildfire in state history, which took 85 lives.
Now, as California braces for peak fire season, the most extensive post-fire cleanup it has ever taken on is nearly complete. Crews have hauled off more than 3.6 million tons of debris — twice what was removed from the World Trade Center site after the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, in New York City.
The San Diego County Water Authority presented its 2019 Water Innovation & Efficiency Award to Marine Corps Air Station Miramar for significantly reducing its overall potable water use through a successful water conservation program and new infrastructure for distributing reclaimed water.
