Given California’s wet winter and ample current water supplies, all drought restrictions enacted in the past two years by the Palmdale Water District have been lifted.
The District Board of Directors voted unanimously on Monday to lift the restrictions by rescinding the Emergency Drought Regulations and the voluntary stage of the Water Shortage Contingency Plan.
Electric transmission developers seeking individual permits from multiple federal agencies can soon hold the government accountable, all the way up to the president, for leading a single environmental review process capped at no more than two years.
The Energy Department’s agreement with eight other agencies and offices, finalized this month, is a long-sought move under 18-year-old legal authority that promises to speed clean energy deployment, according to energy and grid analysts.
The Otay Water District calls on student artists in its service area to unleash their creativity in its annual Student Poster Contest. All students in district schools from kindergarten to 12th grade are invited to illustrate a new theme for the 2023 contest – “Being water wise is …”
Otay Water District’s annual educational program encourages students to create a poster demonstrating their water awareness. Water conservation or stewardship should be reflected in the artwork.
First place in 2022 in the high school category: Michael Armenion, eleventh grade, Otay Ranch High School. Photo: Otay Water District
Suggested examples include turning off the water while brushing your teeth, taking short showers, protecting water from pollution, or collecting rainwater in buckets and reusing it to water plants.
“This year’s theme ‘Being water wise is…’ invites students to share the many ways they can use water efficiently inside and outside their homes or schools,” said Eileen Salmeron, communications assistant and poster contest coordinator for the Otay Water District.
“Because our region and the state have faced many droughts, it is vital that younger generations start making water efficiency their way of life.”
The contest features three categories: elementary, middle, and high school. First- and second-place winners from each category will win a $50-$75 gift card, certificate, art kit, and goodie bag. The District will also feature the winners in promotional materials and hold a recognition event at a monthly board meeting later this summer.
Selected posters will also be entered in a second contest held by the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. MWD will select artwork to feature in its 2024 student art calendar.
First place, middle school: Khilee Haull, seventh grade, Hillsdale Middle School. Photo: Otay Water District
Two students from the Otay Water District have their artwork featured in the 2023 MWD calendar. Seventh grader Khilee Haull at Hillsdale Middle School won first place in the 2022 Otay Water District contest.
Second place, elementary school: Christian-Kealoha Rogacion, fifth grade, Thurgood Marshall Elementary School. Photo: Otay Water District
Fifth grader Christian-Kealoha Rogacion at Thurgood Marshall Elementary School won second place in the 2022 Otay WD elementary school category.
The deadline to enter Otay’s contest is Friday, June 2, 2023. Hard-copy or digital entries are eligible.
Participants must attend a school within the water district’s service area and follow the contest guidelines at otaywater.gov/poster-contest.
Ten talented student artists were honored for their winning work in the annual student poster contest at the May 17 Helix Water District board meeting. The students created their winning posters to visually depict the theme “Being Water Wise Is.”
The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California holds the regional poster contest to increase student awareness about water. Kindergarten through eighth-grade students in local district schools are eligible to compete. This year, 453 students from 24 schools within the Helix Water District Service area submitted posters depicting how to use water wisely.
First Place – Evelyn Racine, Christ Lutheran School, Grade 3
Second Place – Awra Boubetana, La Mesa Arts Academy, Grade 4
Third Place – Katharina Theuer, Christ Lutheran School, Grade 3
Honorable Mention – Aletheia Moffit, Julian Charter School Manzanita, Grade 1
Honorable Mention – Ava Bleiweiss, Fuerte Elementary, Grade 1
First Place – Catalina Raquel Jones, La Mesa Arts Academy, Grade 7
Second Place – Heaton Grey Hadidian, Christ Lutheran School, Grade 8
Third Place – Audrey Robinson, La Mesa Arts Academy, Grade 7
Honorable Mention – Valerie Silva, Mount Vernon Elementary, Grade 5
Honorable Mention – Cameryn Kovar, Saint Martin of Tours Academy, Grade 7
All winning posters will be forwarded to the Metropolitan Water District to be considered for inclusion in its 2024 “Being Water Wise Is” calendar.
First-place winner Catalina Jones in the Grades 5 – 8 category also won as a sixth grader in 2022, and her poster was included in the Metropolitan Water District 2023 regional calendar.
Helix Water District students were also selected for inclusion in the 2022 calendar, and in the 2021 calendar, in competition with all other regional winners.
This year’s winning posters are displayed on the Helix Water District website and Facebook page.
(Editor’s note: The Helix Water District is one of the San Diego County Water Authority’s 24 member agencies that deliver water across the San Diego County region.)
Spring Valley, Calif. – Students in kindergarten through 12th grade are invited to unleash their creativity in the Otay Water District’s annual Student Poster Contest. This year’s theme is “being water wise is…”
Otay’s annual educational program encourages students to create a poster demonstrating their water awareness. Water conservation or stewardship should be reflected in the artwork. Some examples include turning off the water while brushing your teeth, taking short showers, protecting water from pollution, or collecting rainwater in buckets and reusing it to water plants.
“This year’s theme ‘being water wise is…’ invites students to share the many ways they can use water efficiently inside and outside their homes or schools,” said Eileen Salmeron, communications assistant and poster contest coordinator for the Otay Water District. “Because our region and the state has faced many droughts, it is vital that younger generations start making water efficiency their way of life.”
Monday’s historic Colorado River agreement represents a big win for California, which only months ago was embroiled in a bitter feud with Arizona, Nevada and four other Western states over how to dramatically reduce their use of water supplies in the shrinking river. The proposition, which came after months of tense negotiations, would see the three states in the Colorado’s lower basin conserve about 3 million acre-feet of water from the river by 2026 — a 14% reduction across the Southwest that amounts to only about half of what could have been imposed by the federal government had the states not come to an accord.
Through a partnership between the Vallecitos Water District, San Diego County Water Authority, and the County of San Diego, landscape makeover projects in unincorporated areas can take advantage of water-use efficiency rebates as well as professional expertise to maximize conservation and cost savings.
Leaders of Southern California’s water wholesaler hailed a three-state agreement announced Monday aimed at dramatically reducing the amount of water pulled from the Colorado River over the next three years.
The proposed deal among California, Nevada, Arizona and the federal government would stave off what could have been far more dramatic cuts imposed by federal regulators had the states not brokered a deal by the end of the month.
Imperial Irrigation District (IID) General Manager Henry Martinez issued a statement Monday, May 22, commenting on the announcement made earlier today by the Colorado River Board of California regarding the submission of a Lower Basin Plan to Reclamation for analysis by representatives of the seven Colorado River Basin States. The Lower Basin Plan proposes to conserve 3 million acre-feet of Colorado River water through 2026, with at least 1.5 million acre-feet of that total being conserved by the end of calendar year 2024.
Floods, swollen rivers, road closures — Colorado’s spring runoff season is in full swing and much of the snow in the state’s mountains hasn’t melted yet. Colorado saw higher-than-average snowfall build up on the Western Slope this year, a boon for irrigators and other water users who rely on the Colorado River Basin which spans Colorado, tribal lands, six Western states and parts of Mexico. But the snowmelt, with the help of recent weather, is leading to high runoff and its adverse impacts are popping up around the state like a game of whack-a-mole.
