When the California Public Utilities Commission recommended 17 months ago that a gas-fired power plant on the Redondo Beach waterfront remain open beyond 2020 — over the objections of local officials and clean energy activists — Commissioner Martha Guzman Aceves made a commitment to the city’s mayor.
Landscape designs using the least amount of potable water necessary are greatly encouraged in arid or Mediterranean climates like in San Diego County. It’s an important motivation for homeowners to consider efficiency and sustainability to lower water use, saving a precious resource.
Maximizing your landscaping’s ability to capture and use natural rainfall can also help reduce or even completely eliminate your reliance on potable water for irrigation. Compare how much water your new landscape design will need against your existing landscaping’s water use. You’ll be able to estimate your future water savings.
Start by calculating the water use requirements of landscaping filled with plants that require high amounts of water, or moderate amounts, low or very low water requirements.
In these examples, evapotranspiration (ET), irrigation efficiency, and landscape area are exactly the same. The only difference: our examples are home to plants with different water requirements.
To calculate water use, you can refer to the San Diego Water Efficient Landscape Ordinance for guidance. Go to www.sdcounty.gov and search “Landscape Ordinance.” The four key variables are:
Use a landscaped area of 1,000 square feet, with an ET of 51 inches annually, and IE of 0.7. Look at the big difference your plant selection can make in your water use.
Example 1: High Water Use plants (PF = 0.8) – 36,137 gallons of water per year
Example 2: Moderate Water Use plants (PF = 0.5) – 22, 586 gallons of water per year
Example 3: Low Water Use plants (PF = 0.2) – 9.034 gallons of water per year
Example 4: Very Low Water Use plants (PF = 0.1) – 4,517 gallons of water per year
From the highest estimate to the lowest estimate, you could potentially save 17,103 gallons of water every single year.
This article is part of a year-long series inspired by the 71-page Sustainable Landscapes Program guidebook. The Water Authority and its partners also offer other great resources for landscaping upgrades, including free WaterSmart classes at WaterSmartSD.org.
The Vallecitos Water District received two awards for its innovative use of technology to reduce algae blooms at the Stanley A. Mahr Reservoir in San Marcos. The district received the “Excellence in Action” award from the national WateReuse Association, and the “Innovation and Resiliency” award from the California Association of Sanitation Agencies, or CASA.
Dry conditions in the Southwest, largely associated with La Niña, have intensified what the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is calling the most significant U.S. spring drought since 2013, affecting an estimated 74 million people.
As the rain season comes to a close across Northern California, water districts are keeping a close eye on rain totals that are below average, and water managers are explaining what another “dry water year” means for our region. According to California’s Department of Water Resources, or DWR, the state is well into its second consecutive dry year. That causes concern among water managers. However, it comes as no surprise.
The 2021 drought is quickly becoming an emergency. Kern County’s supply from the State Water Project has been reduced to just 5 percent of a full allocation. Rainfall is about half of average. And with each passing dry day, the drought gets worse.
The Mendocino City Community Services District board declared a Stage 3 drought at its latest meeting, March 29. The district has recorded approximately 20.5 inches of rain for the year to date; this is the second-lowest recorded total in the past 100 years.
A Stage 3 drought includes the following mandates:
The Fort Yuma-Quechan Indian Tribe is situated at a nexus in the Colorado River Basin. That’s true in a geographic sense. The tribe’s reservation overlays the Arizona-California border near Yuma, Arizona. The two states are heavily reliant on water from the Colorado River. The reservation also abuts the U.S.-Mexico border where the river flows into Mexico for use in cities and on farms. One of the river’s largest irrigation projects, the All-American Canal, was dug through the tribe’s land, and flows from the reservation’s northeastern boundary to its far southwestern corner, on its way to irrigate crops in California’s Imperial Valley.
America is one thirsty country. The U.S. consumes 322 billion gallons of water every single day, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The most, 133 billion gallons, goes to thermoelectric power. Next is irrigation at 118 billion gallons a day. The last big category is the 39 billion gallons of water that go to personal consumption. That’s the stuff that cooks the pasta and wets the washcloths and cleans the car tires and pours down the drains of millions of showers, sinks and toilets every second of every day. And the following is just one little drop in that great, big bucket.
In the early 1990s, most bottled water came from small, regional companies. In the ensuing years, control of the market has become concentrated among just a few giant corporations. Today, No. 1 Aquafina and No. 2 Dasani each do more than $1 billion in sales.
The San Diego City Council Tuesday appointed Val Macedo Jr. to the San Diego County Water Authority, giving the business representative for the local chapter of LIUNA a leadership role on the regional water board.
That appointment comes just over two years after his father, Valentine Macedo, who we quoted above, had a dispute with other construction union officials over San Diego’s Pure Water project, one of the largest infrastructure projects the city has pursued in its recent history, which is expected to eventually supply 53 million gallons of drinking water to city residents a day.
In late 2018, when the City Council was wrapping up a construction contract on the project, Macedo wrote to the Council taking issue with a provision he opposed, and that other major construction unions support.
“This requirement gets the City Council involved in an ongoing conflict between certain trades,” Macedo wrote.
Kelvin Barrios, then a Council staffer and now a Laborers employee, passed the letter to his boss, and other union leaders. Barrios went on to run for City Council against now-Councilman Sean Elo-Rivera, before dropping out of the race amid a handful of ethical violations, including failing to disclose that he was paid by the Laborers while still working for the city.
Probably unrelated: Elo-Rivera was the only Council member who did not support Macedo Jr.’s appointment this week.
Of note: Officials at the Water Authority nearly didn’t consider the massive Pure Water project in its accounting of the region’s long-term water needs earlier this year.
