The county Department of Environmental Health issued a water contact closure for the northern boundary of Torrey Pines State Beach, north of Carmel Valley Road in the city of Del Mar, due to a sewage spill. The sewage spill has been contained, but an estimated release of 1,800 gallons of effluent entered the storm drain, resulting in potential impacts to beach water quality, according to the DEH.
As the Department of Homeland Security sped construction of new barriers along the U.S.-Mexico border, it ignored concerns from the Fish and Wildlife Service not to abuse groundwater resources and put the survival of some endangered species at risk, new documents show.
The Fallbrook Public Utility District is in the process of replacing Automatic Meter Reading meters with Advanced Metering Infrastructure meters, and a July 27 FPUD board vote approved the purchases for the fifth year of the program.
The 5-0 vote approved $532,088.90 of purchases including sales tax for meters, encoder receiver transmitters, and antennas. The purchases will provide the district with 1,308 Badger meters of various sizes from National Meter and Automation Inc. for $320,785 plus sales tax and 1,301 Itron encoder receiver transmitters and antennas from Inland Works Water Supply Company for $173,730.50 not including sales tax.
Developers want to build a vast hydroelectric power facility that would flood sacred lands, threaten waterways and put habitats at risk.
Water utilities were already facing a long list of challenges before COVID-19. Add to the list employee health protection, shutoff moratoriums, intensified affordability issues, unstable cash flow, the inability to foresee the “new normal” and matters become more complicated. It’s probable the list will continue to grow. Will supply management, defined as — identifying, acquiring and managing resources and supplier relationships that are essential to operations — be added to this list of challenges?
According to AWWA, 56% of utilities surveyed indicate experiencing PPE supply chain issues due to the pandemic. In the early stages of the emergency there were expressed concerns of interruptions to the supply chain for treatment chemicals. These supply chain issues may be short term, or not. What we are experiencing isn’t a typical risk event. The scale surpasses anything that even the savviest supply chain leaders could have anticipated.
Every day Hyperion Water Treatment Plant discharges enough treated wastewater into the ocean to fill the Rose Bowl 2.5 times over. Now a court has instructed state water officials to analyze whether it is “wasteful” and “unreasonable” to dump billions of gallons of wastewater into the sea.
The replacement of the Fallbrook Public Utility District’s Martin Tank will be complemented by additional landscaping.
A 5-0 FPUD board vote, July 27, approved an additional $45,000 for landscaping expenses. The full amount allows the planned landscaping to proceed if expenses exceed the estimated $38,974 for 19 trees and irrigation infrastructure.
“The board felt it was a reasonable step to invest in the landscaping,” Jack Bebee, general manager of FPUD, said.
On New Year’s Day in 2018, Paul Kehmeier and his father drove up Grand Mesa until they got to the county line, 10,000 feet above sea level. Instead of the three to five feet of snow that should have been on the ground, there wasn’t enough of a dusting to even cover the grass.
The men marveled at the sight, and Kehmeier snapped a photo of his dad, “standing on the bare pavement, next to bare ground.”
Rebates for WaterSmart irrigation devices are available in San Diego County to help property owners reduce expenses by improving water efficiency.
The rebates, offered for a limited time by the San Diego County Water Authority, provide significant savings on devices for outdoor landscapes.
The WaterSmart Contractor Incentive Program, or WSCIP, helps commercial, public and agricultural property owners improve water-use efficiency in large landscapes through rebates for irrigation hardware upgrades. School districts, universities, and other organizations are also eligible.
“This incentive program is designed to be business-friendly as part of the Water Authority’s focus on long-term water-use efficiency,” said Efren Lopez, a water resources specialist with the Water Authority, who manages the program.
The rebate program started a few months before the coronavirus pandemic, and recently was extended to ensure that property owners and landscape contractors have a full opportunity to take advantage of the savings. Rebates are available on a first-come, first-served basis to qualified landscape contractors and property owners at self-managed sites in San Diego County.
Project sites must include at least one acre of irrigated landscape to qualify.
The program offers a range of innovative irrigation devices. Bundling these four items leads to the greatest water efficiency.
The WaterSmart Contractor Incentive Program is a large landscape and technology-focused program, which targets qualified landscape contractors and self-managed sites.
Enrollment is a paperless process. To participate, create an account to enroll and verify your qualifications. To enroll, or for more information, go to: https://www.sdwatersmartcip.com/ or call (888) 521-9763.
There is also a list of contractors enrolled in the program that can work with property owners who want to install eligible irrigation efficiency devices: https://www.sdwatersmartcip.com/enrolled-contractors
