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OPINION: We Cannot Afford Pure Water Los Angeles

/in , /by /City Watch LAby Jack Humphreville

The Department of Water and Power is developing plans for Pure Water Los Angeles (“PWLA”)  a facility that will convert wastewater to drinking water.  This project will be located at Hyperion, just south of LAX, and will produce an estimated 200,000-acre feet of potable water a year, an amount equal to more than 40% of the City’s annual consumption.

This project is designed to increase the supply of water from local sources (10-15%), reducing our dependence on non-local sources (85-90%).  Today, the City relies on water delivered by the Metropolitan Water District (“MWD”) through the California Aqueduct from Northern California and the Colorado River Aqueduct.  We also receive water via the Los Angeles Aqueduct from sources in the Eastern Sierras and Owens Valley that are controlled by DWP, although this source has been constrained because of environmental issues.

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Watersmart Makeover: A Welcome to Wildlife

/in , /by /San Diego Union-Tribuneby Caron Golden

What kind of yard does a wildlife biologist create for herself and her family? For Shea O’Keefe, the 2025 WaterSmart Landscape Contest winner for San Dieguito Water District, it’s a yard that has a thoughtful connection to nature.

O’Keefe, a wildlife biologist who does restoration on working lands (think farmland, rangeland and forest land whose owners want to do something for wildlife) for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, has gradually created her own miniature version of a wildlife preserve in the suburbs of Encinitas.

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Budget Analysts Tell San Diego How to Help Shrink County Water Rate Hikes

/in , /by /San Diego Union-Tribuneby David Garrick Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

Budget analysts for San Diego say city officials should demand big changes at the cash-strapped County Water Authority, including a thorough re-thinking of its entire operations and urgent action on out-of-state water sales.

The recommendations come with the city facing cumulative water rate hikes of 90% over six years, and the water authority predicting it will need to increase the rates it charges the city and other local agencies 100% to 150% by 2035.

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San Diego-Based Water Farm 1 Aims to Move Freshwater Production Under the Sea

/in , /by /Times of San Diego

Some four miles off the coast, a company is betting it can solve one of desalination’s biggest problems by moving the technology deep below the ocean’s surface.

OceanWell’s planned Water Farm 1 would use natural ocean pressure to power reverse osmosis — a process that forces seawater through membranes to filter out salt and impurities — and produce up to 60 million gallons of freshwater daily. Desalination is energy intensive, with plants worldwide producing between 500 and 850 million tons of carbon emissions annually — approaching the roughly 880 million tons emitted by the entire global aviation industry.

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OPINION: Water Cuts Pending

/in , /by /Imperial Valley Pressby Kay Pricola Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

As we start the second full week of the new year, Imperial Valley continues to receive unwelcome news. While our elected IID Board members and key staff have been busy celebrating the growth in the Coachella Valley in ribbon cuttings IID celebrates and filing litigation against the County of Imperial (IID Files Lawsuit), the most important aspect of their responsibility seems to be slipping away from them and without any notice to the public.

For all things following the Colorado River, be aware that the interim Guidelines which established criteria for water use, expire in August 2026. The 2025 deadlines set for the seven-state negotiating team for new 2026 guidelines were missed. With that failure, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has released a report with five options for managing the Colorado River after 2026. The significance of that 1600-page report can be summarized below:

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Beyond the Forecast: Record-Setting Rain Delivers One of the Wettest Starts to CA Water Year

/in , /by /ABC 7by Brianna Ruffalo

Record-setting rain this season has pushed California completely out of the “abnormally dry” category on the U.S. Drought Monitor for the first time in 25 years, as a series of storms delivered one of the wettest starts to the water year across the state.

Southern California saw a notably soggy holiday period, with rain on Christmas Eve and Christmas marking the fourth-wettest two-day holiday stretch on record.

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Westlands Pushes for More Water Storage as California Declared Drought-Free

/in , /by /The Sunby Daniel Gligich

California has been declared drought-free for the first time in a quarter-century.

However, Central Valley water experts warn that the state needs to take immediate action to boost water supplies in preparation for future dry conditions. The U.S. Drought Monitor declared that California does not have any drought conditions last week. That is the first time that California has not experienced drought conditions since December 2000.

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Down and Dirty With Digital: How AI Enhances Water Infrastructure Fieldwork

/in , /by /Water Onlineby Kevin Westerling

Fieldwork is at the heart of infrastructure expansion and rehabilitation, as utilities, engineers, and contractors collaborate to build the systems and structures that treat and move water. The opportunity is great, but so are the challenges. Which is why new, digitally-enhanced tools are needed — to meet modern demands related to labor shortages, regulatory pressures, environmental threats, worker safety, and ever-tighter budgets.

Such technologies are also used to support “boots on the ground” labor, as planning, design, monitoring, and management decision-making are all enhanced by digital technologies.

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Microsoft Rolls Out Initiative to Limit Data-Center Power Costs, Water Use Impact

/in , /by /Reuters
Microsoft on Tuesday unveiled an initiative to curb water usage at its U.S. data centers and limit the impact on the general population from any potential surge in power prices.
Political leaders across the U.S. are urging a rapid expansion of data-center capacity and new power production to keep the country competitive in AI. However, local communities are voicing concerns over how the power-hungry facilities will impact their utility bills and use land, water and other natural resources in the region.
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How Much Did the Holiday Rain Help in San Diego?

/in , /by /CBS 8by Evan Noorani

In lockstep with Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve celebrations, rain returned to San Diego County with vengeance, leading to record-breaking daily totals and palm fronds littering the road.

Five cities in the county recorded their wettest New Year’s Day on record, including San Diego and Chula Vista, which unsurprisingly led to flooding in Fashion Valley along the San Diego River. Despite our previous Water Year ending with about a 40% deficit, our new Water Year (which began October 1) now shows a huge surplus that will help alleviate drought conditions. Furthermore, our latest Drought Monitor now shows that none of the state of California is classified as abnormally dry. It’s the first time in 25 years that has happened.

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