Chula Vista, Calif. – The Sweetwater Authority Governing Board welcomed the Chair of the State Water Resources Control Board, E. Joaquin Esquivel, at the Richard A. Reynolds Groundwater Desalination Facility today for a tour.
Water affordability for ratepayers was the topic of discussion during a legislative roundtable Thursday at the San Diego County Water Authority.
The Water Authority convened state, regional and local officials in search of winning strategies for enhancing water affordability for ratepayers across the county and the state.
Water agency managers, board members, elected officials and their representatives from throughout the county joined E. Joaquin Esquivel, chair of the State Water Resources Control Board, to assess and address water affordability issues.
Esquivel was appointed to the Water Resources Control Board by Governor Jerry Brown in March 2017. In February 2019, Governor Gavin Newsom named Esquivel chair of that five-member board, to which he was reappointed in 2021.
During the roundtable, Esquivel said maintaining water affordability and access to safe water for Californians is challenged by pressures that include aging infrastructure and climate change.
“How to sustain our systems in the next 10, 20, 50 years is a complex issue, but we need to collectively expand access, while maintaining affordability and supply,” he said.
Esquivel said state loans to water projects statewide help water affordability and access to a safe, clean supply.
“Water has created the wealth of this state, and water supply investments made here are examples of what needs to be done,” said Esquivel, referring to successful supply diversification investments by the Water Authority and its 24 member agencies.
He also discussed the need for additional water infrastructure projects – including desalination, groundwater recharge, and potable reuse, and an increase in funding sources for those projects – and the importance of federal funding to help ensure access to safe and affordable water for all communities.
State Water Resources Control Board Chair E. Joaquin Esquivel and San Diego County Water Authority General Manager Sandra L. Kerl discussed water affordability Sept. 29 in San Diego. Photo: San Diego County Water Authority
Water Authority General Manager Sandra Kerl detailed some of the agency’s affordability efforts in recent years.
“The Water Authority is committed to maintaining an affordable water supply and finding solutions to inherently complex challenges related to water costs, rates and investments,” said Kerl. “Significant advances in affordability can only be achieved through the combined efforts of all four sectors that affect the cost of water for our region. Those sectors are the federal government, state government, wholesale water agencies and local water retailers.”
Kerl said the Water Authority’s commitment to affordability includes securing $25 million from the State of California to pay water bills for San Diego County residents impacted by COVID-19; securing $90 million over the past two years through successful litigation efforts and distributing that money directly to its 24 member agencies; avoiding hundreds of millions of dollars in future costs on water deliveries; and maintaining strong credit ratings that reduce the cost of infrastructure.
“Everything at the Water Authority is designed to deliver a safe and reliable water supply at an affordable cost, and the agency has taken numerous steps over the past three years to enhance affordability,” Kerl said. “Water affordability is imperative to equitable water access. This resource should be available to all regardless of race, ethnicity, or income level. Nobody should have to choose between safe, clean water and affordable water.”
Kerl said that the federal and state government, wholesale water agencies, and local water retailers can work together in finding solutions to the complex challenges related to water costs, rates and investments.
A recent poll by the Water Authority found that more than half of the residents of San Diego County would support a hypothetical program that provided water discounts or an assistance program for low-income ratepayers – even if they had to pay a few dollars more a month to fund it.
The Water Authority holds periodic legislative roundtables to promote collaboration with the water industry, civic and business leaders, on critical water issues in the San Diego region.
Water and wastewater professionals across San Diego County are highlighted in October during the San Diego County Water Authority’s “Faces of the Water Industry” campaign. Each year, the Water Authority collaborates with its member agencies to showcase regional water industry employees and career opportunities through a series of social media posts and videos.
Since 2017, the Water Authority’s annual campaigns have highlighted nearly 200 employees in San Diego County across multiple water agencies and job types. The 2022 campaign started October 1, coinciding with California’s Water Professionals Appreciation Week (October 1-9).
The 2022 Faces of the Water Industry campaign features stories from 18 San Diego County water industry professionals in a series of social media posts and videos. Follow the Water Authority on Instagram (@sdcwa) to read more inspiring stories from the region’s water and wastewater pros – the Faces of the Water Industry.
The water and wastewater industry offers vast opportunities in engineering, operations, finance, public affairs, human resources, administration and information technology. New and current water professionals can learn more about the industry in an upcoming series of free virtual career fairs hosted by various agencies in October.
For more job openings, internships and education opportunities across the San Diego region’s water and wastewater industry, go to sandiegowaterworks.org.
Governor Gavin Newsom signed a new law on Wednesday to make it cheaper for Californians to replace their traditional grass lawns with more sustainable, drought-resistant plants. The focus behind this new law is to help Californians save water, and a big way they can do that is by opting for these more sustainable plants and landscaping.
With California’s water supply shrinking and the drought dragging on, Bay Area water agencies are getting serious about persuading their customers to use water responsibly.
NASA satellite photos show how drastically the water levels in Lake Powell and Lake Mead have receded in just the past few years. They demonstrate the severity of long-term drought and the challenges Arizona will face to conserve and enhance its precious water supply. Susanna Eden is the research program manager for the Water Resources Research Center at the University of Arizona.
If you want to cross the Rillito River in Tucson, Arizona, anytime between October and July, you probably won’t need a boat, a bridge, waders or even waterproof shoes. During most of the year, the river is an arroyo, a curvy strip of dry sand that holds no more than the memory of water: braided serpentine patterns in the sand, erosion-smoothed stones, debris wrapped around the trunks of the few hardy deciduous trees.
Amid a third painfully dry year, the Bay Area’s biggest water retailer began releasing the names of customers using “excessive” amounts of water this week, a practice that may soon tee up hundreds of households for humiliation and shame.
California is most likely heading into a fourth consecutive year of drought.
The state’s water year ends tomorrow, which has prompted predictions about what’s in store for the next 12 months. (California’s water year runs from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30, so that the winter rainy season falls within a single water year.)
A climate change panel Wednesday told its small audience about policy changes Orange County has made and where local leadership has fallen short. Scientists, politicians and local first responders gathered at the Orange Coast College planetarium to share ways the county can improve and forthcoming dangers a warmer climate presents.
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