You are now in Agency News News category.

Earn Up To $75 For Fixing A Leak During The Entire Month Of March

To assist customers with costs typically associated with leak repairs and to help conserve our most precious resource, Sweetwater Authority (Authority) is offering rebates of up to $75 for repairs made in March 2020. The special month-long rebate is in celebration of the national Fix a Leak Week, which serves as an annual reminder to check household plumbing fixtures and irrigation systems for leaks.

California Scientists Study Climate Change at Bottom of the Ocean

California researchers have found that oxygen levels and water temperatures play a key role in the health of deep-sea fish populations. San Diego and Monterey Bay scientists studied fish on the floor of the Gulf of California.

“This is an example of some of the video that we are analyzing for this research,” said Natalya Gallo, a post-doctoral researcher at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

She pointed to footage taken along the seafloor on the Gulf of California near the Mexican coast. The pictures come from a remotely controlled submarine. Researchers use the underwater tool to gauge the impact of a warming ocean on fish.

Opinion: The Dam Truth About the Colorado River

The latest research about the Colorado River is alarming and also predictable: In a warming world, snowmelt has been decreasing while evaporation of reservoirs is increasing. Yet no politician has a plan to save the diminishing Colorado River. If you followed the news about the Colorado River for the last year, however, you’d think that a political avalanche had swept down from Colorado’s snow-capped peaks and covered the Southwest with a blanket of “collaboration” and “river protection.”

I won’t call it fake news, but I will point out errors of omission. First, the Colorado River is not protected. The agreement that was reached — called the “Drought Contingency Plan” — does not protect the river nor its ecological health. The agreement protects the federal government’s, the states’, the cities’, and the farmers’ ability to 100% drain the river bone dry every single year.

Environmental Disaster or a Key to Clean Energy Future? A New Twist on Hydropower

Steve Lowe gazed into a gaping pit in the heart of the California desert, careful not to let the blistering wind send him toppling over the edge.

The pit was a bustling iron mine once, churning out ore that was shipped by rail to a nearby Kaiser Steel plant. When steel manufacturing declined, Los Angeles County tried to turn the abandoned mine into a massive landfill. Conservationists hope the area will someday become part of Joshua Tree National Park, which surrounds it on three sides.

Lowe has a radically different vision.

With backing from NextEra Energy — the world’s largest operator of solar and wind farms — he’s working to fill two mining pits with billions of gallons of water, creating a gigantic “pumped storage” plant that he says would help California get more of its power from renewable sources, and less from fossil fuels.

Utah House Reaffirms Intent to Develop Colorado River Water

Utah’s booming population growth and rapid economic development means the need for more water, a higher level of conservation and wise development of water supplies, which are not infinite.

With that in the backdrop, the Utah House of Representatives on Tuesday passed HCR22, which makes clear to neighboring states and policymakers that Utah will someday develop its unused portion of the Colorado River.

The Colorado River, termed the hardest working river in the West, serves 40 million people in the Southwest, including a large population in Utah through a diversion system.

California May Need a ‘Miracle March’ to Prevent an Early and Dangerous Wildfire Season

A brush fire that grew to 175 acres in Norco, California, on Tuesday was perhaps a preview of what could be an early and dangerous wildfire season in a state that just had its driest February on record. It was the eighth fire incident in 2020, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE). That already equals the number of fire incidents before April 1 in the last four years combined.

San Diego Would Suffer Catastrophic Damage if Rose Canyon Fault Produces 6.9 Earthquake

A magnitude 6.9 earthquake on San Diego’s Rose Canyon Fault could damage 100,000 residences, cause widespread road and bridge failures, and make parts of Mission Bay sink about a foot, according to the most detailed disaster scenario ever done on the region.

Such a temblor could also cut gas and water service between La Jolla and the Silver Strand for months, collapse key municipal buildings, and close the San Diego-Coronado Bridge, says a report by the San Diego chapter of the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute. Parts of the fault would rupture the Earth’s surface and shift the landscape 6 to 7 feet, damaging streets so badly it would make it hard for police, firefighters and paramedics to get around.

Opinion: Poseidon Desalination Would Worsen Environmental Injustice in Orange County

What would California be without the beach? I grew up in Irvine with an awareness of how fortunate we are to live near the ocean. As a child, my parents and babysitters took me and my brother to Corona Del Mar and Newport Beach frequently during the summer. I have many happy memories of enjoying the waves at “our beaches” while bodysurfing, building sandcastles, and seeing fish, anemones, sandcrabs, dolphins and jellyfish! We also took school field trips to Crystal Cove to learn about the ecosystem. These experiences taught me to respect the ocean and to understand that it is alive, a home for sea life and people.

That’s why it’s upsetting that our regional water board is moving closer to issuing permits for a project near my hometown that will harm our ocean, make us more vulnerable to climate change, and make our drinking water more expensive. The project is a massive ocean water desalination plant being proposed by a global corporation called Poseidon that has its sights on Huntington Beach.

San Diego’s Sutherland Reservoir in Ramona Reopening to Public on Friday

The city of San Diego’s Sutherland Reservoir will reopen for boating, fishing, hiking and picnicking three days each week beginning on Friday.

The reservoir, located 45 miles northeast of San Diego, will be open Friday, Saturday and Sunday from sunrise to sunset, and on the Memorial Day, Independence Day and Labor Day holidays. It’s closed the third Friday of each month.

The recreation area has barbecues, picnic tables and restrooms. Dogs are allowed on leashes. Water activities including boating, canoeing, kayaking, sailboarding and float tubing are allowed on Saturdays and Sundays.

California Blackouts Boost Power-Storage Demand, Engie Says

Power cuts during California’s devastating wildfire season have boosted demand for combined solar panels and battery storage solutions as businesses look to mitigate economic damage from future blackouts.

Billions of dollars in economic activity were lost from mass power shutoffs during wildfires in California last year. The blackouts, which were aimed at preventing live wires from sparking more fires during high winds, caused widespread disruption for Californians at the end of last year and forced schools and business to shut.