Elected officials in Marina have joined forces with three water agencies in a lawsuit against the California Coastal Commission over its tentative permitting in November of California American Water Co.’s desalination project.
One hundred years ago — little more than a lifetime — nature and the Colorado River conspired almost every spring to ravage soil, rocks, vegetation and anything else in the river’s path on its rapacious way to the Pacific Ocean. The river overran its banks to flood California’s Imperial Valley plus other low-lying ground in Arizona, Mexico and California. It filled those valleys with fertile mountain soil.
One of the San Diego County Water Authority’s large-scale capital improvement projects – the Mission Trails Flow Regulatory Structure II and Flow Control Facility (FRS II) – is now completed. The project upgraded the Water Authority’s untreated water supply system by improving the delivery of water to treatment plants serving the central and southern areas of San Diego County.
The FRS II project, which began construction in spring 2020, includes a new 5-million-gallon underground covered reservoir, a flow control facility and pipeline interconnections. The reservoir is covered with soil and vegetation, except for several access hatches and vents that allow for air movement inside the reservoir.
FRS II is the Water Authority’s second underground water tank located in Mission Trails Regional Park – the other one, located just west of the new one, is a treated water tank. The two tanks work to efficiently move water through the region, ultimately to customer’s homes and businesses.
“The Water Authority thanks the community for their patience while crews work to successfully build this important water delivery project,” said Michael Heu, the Water Authority’s construction manager for the project. “With the project completed, we are pleased to reopen the park trails which were previously impacted due to construction activity. The public’s safety was a top priority during this work.”
The parade of severe storms slamming into Northern California could lead to one of the strongest seasons since the wild El Niño-fueled winter of 1997–98, given the relentless pace of weather systems marching in with little relief. And this isn’t even an El Niño year. Already, Northern California and the Central Valley have been hit by a number of history-making storms, pouring floodwaters into homes, cars, restaurants, a nursing home, freeways and underpasses.
The atmospheric river storm that was bearing down on the Bay Area Wednesday night and Thursday morning raised concerns about mudslides, power outages and other problems. And a series of new storms headed our way this weekend means the end is not yet in sight.
California has seen so much rain in the last few weeks that farm fields are inundated and normally dry creeks and drainage ditches have become torrents of water racing toward the ocean. At the same time, most of the state is still in severe drought. All that runoff raises the question — why can’t more rainwater be collected and stored for the long, dry spring and summer when it’s needed?
California’s State Water Resources Control Board asked the California Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank to issue $650 million for a revolving fund so it can loan money to local governments for a wide range of projects. IBank’s staff recommended approval of the resolution authorizing the issuance of the bonds at a Dec. 21 meeting. The board meets again on Jan. 25.
With $5 million in funding from NOAA’s Climate Adaptation Partners (CAP) initiative, the California Nevada Adaptation Program (CNAP), a collaborative initiative between UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the DRI in Reno, Nevada will work to expand climate research and focus on building adaptation strategies. The program will last five years and aim to empower local communities to use this knowledge to make informed decisions in the face of long-term drought, unprecedented wildfires, and extreme heat impacting public health.
An atmospheric river taking aim for California was expected to bring heavy rains to an already-drenched San Diego County overnight Thursday, creating the possibility for flooding, downed trees and big waves for the first week of the New Year. The atmospheric river, which is a term used to describe heavier-than-normal rains that pull moisture from the tropics, inundated Northern and Central California on Wednesday, prompting evacuations, causing power outages and other damage.
Widespread rain returns to San Diego County Thursday for a fifth day in a row as yet another atmospheric river impacts our state. Gov. Gavin Newsom has proclaimed a state of emergency throughout California in response to severe winter storms.
