The U.S. government is dedicating $60 million over the next few years to projects along the Rio Grande in southern New Mexico and West Texas to make the river more resilient in the face of climate change and growing demands.
The Jamacha Park Homeowners Association in Rancho San Diego is the region’s latest showcase for low-water landscaping after receiving one of four One Water Awards from the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California.
Accessible walkways bring residents closer to nature as part of its new landscaping. Photo: MSE Landscape
The awards recognize large-scale improvements to facilities and landscapes that achieve significant water savings. The four projects honored in early May are expected to save 200 million gallons of water annually. Projects are also recognized for technology innovations, environmental stewardship, and their focus on water sustainability.
Jamacha Park is a 64-home community. The HOA worked with MWD, the San Diego County Water Authority, and the County of San Diego’s Watershed Protection Program to replace 58,000 square feet of grass with sustainable landscaping, including climate-appropriate plants.
(L to R): Debby Dunn, San Diego County Water Authority; Mike Seymour, MSE Landscape; Brian Faris, Monarch Environmental; Scott Norris, County of San Diego; Matt Davenport, Monarch Environmental; Chad Praul, Environmental Incentives; and Tenille Otero, Otay Water District. Photo: Metropolitan Water District of Southern California
“I hope the project that we have done will show other communities what is possible. There is a way to get water savings and still have a beautiful landscape everyone can enjoy,” said Jamacha Park HOA Board President Mary Kay Sieckman.
The HOA board, community residents, and landscape professionals worked together on the landscape makeover. The newly beautified community spaces are accessible to all residents while reducing water use.
Sieckman said the HOA learned about these programs through its property management company. “When the board members heard about it, they jumped at it. They were very excited because it would be a step forward toward a long-time goal we knew needed to be done.”
See a video featuring Jamacha Park HOA Board President Mary Kay Sieckman describing the landscape makeover process.
The project has been so successful that the HOA plans to replace additional turf, eventually removing a total 100,000 square feet of grass for a potential water savings of 4 million gallons annually.
The Jamacha Park HOA received funding and assistance through MWD’s Turf Replacement Rebate Program available through the Water Authority and the County’s Landscape Optimization Service. Working with the County’s Watershed Protection Program, residences and businesses in unincorporated areas of San Diego County can be eligible for enhanced water-use efficiency rebates.
The Jamacha Park HOA achieved significant water savings with its landscape makeover project. Photo: Metropolitan Water District of Southern California/Screenshot
“We have accomplished something with the help of all these agencies. It shows to the community you can save water and still have a beautiful landscape. You don’t have to rely on grass for everything,” Sieckman said.
The Jamacha Park community’s landscaping before its makeover. Photo: MSE Landscape/Screenshot
To make the process of applying for rebates easier and maximize the return on investment, the County added a Landscape Optimization Service (LOS), a unique technical assistance program for large-scale landscaping projects. It is part of the Waterscape Rebate Program, which helps residential, commercial, and agricultural customers in unincorporated areas to make landscape upgrades that improve the region’s climate resilience and reduce the flow of pollutants into waterways.
The project has been so successful that the HOA plans to replace additional turf, eventually removing a total 100,000 square feet of grass for a potential water savings of 4 million gallons annually. Phoro: MSE Landscape
County of San Diego Land Use Environmental Planning Manager Scott Norris says the LOS program helps applicants navigate the requirements, overcome any barriers to participation, and maximize their eligibility. “Often HOAs just need a bit of help to get started. We have worked with more than a dozen HOAs and more than half are coming back to complete additional turf removal projects because they see the value for their communities.”
Dry riverbeds help manage stormwater runoff. Photo: MSE Landscape
Sustainable landscapes produce multiple benefits including reduced water use, enhanced biodiversity, increased stormwater retention, and decreased run-off.
New landscape features include boulders framing walkways. Photo: MSE Landscape
Water customers in unincorporated San Diego County can determine their eligibility at SanDiegoCounty.gov/WatershedRebates. More information on the Landscape Optimization Service can be found here. The program is currently recruiting new participants.
The Waterscape Rebate Program helps to protect local waterways by reducing pollutants that enter storm drains. When irrigation systems overflow from landscaping, runoff may carry pollutants like pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers into the storm drain system and cause the same negative effects as runoff from rainfall. Reducing turf helps reduce irrigation use and runoff. HOA landscapes are potentially significant contributors.
The County Watershed Protection Program is currently seeking new applicants. Photo: MSE Landscape
The program includes outreach and education to commercial, industrial, and residential properties in unincorporated areas of the county. In addition, the County is offering rebate programs for upgrades, including rain gardens, gutters, permeable pavement, and regular septic system pumping.
Learn more about the County of San Diego Watershed Protection Program at its website.
The American Southwest recently experienced its driest period in 1,200 years. Storms in the winter of 2023 eased some of California’s extreme drought conditions, but officials stress that conservation should remain a way of life.
This page tracks hydrological conditions, precipitation, the Sierra snowpack and the largest reservoirs serving the state.
California’s reservoirs are not only vital to the state’s complex water systems, providing millions of people and the state’s agricultural economy with needed access to water; they’re also important gauges for how healthy the state is overall. This year’s at-capacity reservoirs have been a boon for a region besieged by drought over much of the past decade, but more work is needed to help ensure a plentiful and water-wise future for the most populous state in America.
Mexico City is parched.
After abysmally low amounts of rainfall over the last few years, the reservoirs of the Cutzamala water system that supplies over 20 percent of the Mexican capital’s 22 million residents’ usable water are running out.
The Delta Tunnel proposal exemplifies California’s political dysfunction. It will probably never get built, but it promises to dominate all discussions of major state and federal spending on water infrastructure for the next decade, preventing any other big ideas from getting the attention they merit.
After another wet winter, record rainfall has turned California green and replenished the state’s reservoirs, which had been perilously low during the worst days of the drought.
Lake Oroville, the state’s second-biggest reservoir, often serves as a rainfall barometer. As of Tuesday, Oroville was at 100% capacity, according to data from the state Department of Water Resources.
After years of pervasive declines, groundwater levels rose significantly in much of California last year, boosted by historic wet weather and the state’s expanding efforts to replenish depleted aquifers.
California’s vital groundwater reserves grew by a record 8.7 million acre-feet — twice the volume of giant Shasta Lake — in the official water year ended Sept. 30, the Department of Water Resources reported this week.
The culture wars have a new target: your teeth.
Communities across the U.S. are ending public water fluoridation programs, often spurred by groups that insist that people should decide whether they want the mineral — long proven to fight cavities — added to their water supplies.
