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San Diego County Will Stay Unseasonably Warm Until Modest Storm Arrives This Weekend

/in , /by /San Diego Union-Tribuneby Gary Robbins

San Diego County’s long stretch of unseasonably warm, dry weather will last until Friday, when a modest storm is expected to begin dropping about a quarter-inch of precipitation in many areas, possibly triggering lightning on Saturday, the National Weather Service says.

The daytime high at San Diego International Airport is forecast to reach 73 on Tuesday, 75 on Wednesday, 73 on Thursday, 72 on Friday and 68 on Saturday. The seasonal average is 68.

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Interior Chief Pursues Colorado River Water Deal During Las Vegas Visit

/in , /by /Las Vegas Review-Journalby Ricardo Torres-Cortez

U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum reiterated Tuesday that the federal government favors a negotiated deal between the seven states that share Colorado River water over the resource’s allocation rather than a protracted legal battle.

During a Las Vegas Valley visit, Burgum said the federal government will continue pushing for a possible deal before the current 20-year-old one expires in the coming months.

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Will Data Centers Threaten California’s Water? It’s Complicated.

/in , /by /Public Policy Institute of Californiaby Sarah Bardeen, Annalise Blum

The explosive growth in data centers is fueling concerns in California, as well as across the country, about water and energy use. Some have gone as far as to propose a water usage fee on data centers. However, others argue that data center water use is just a drop in the bucket compared to other uses or that most data centers are moving toward less water-intensive practices, such as reusing water in closed-loop systems.

To help us understand what we do and don’t know about California data centers and water use, we spoke with Dr. Marie Grimm, an environmental policy research fellow at UC Berkeley’s Center for Law, Energy, & the Environment, about their new report “Regulating Data Center Water Use in California.”

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The California Lake Billed as the ‘Saudi Arabia of Lithium’

/in , /by /New York Timesby Soumya Karlamangla

Beneath California’s Salton Sea, there is so much metal essential to rechargeable batteries that Gov. Gavin Newsom calls the vast lake “the Saudi Arabia of lithium.”

An estimated $500 billion worth of lithium here could help power our smartphones, electric cars and electricity grids. And a so-called white gold rush could bring jobs, tax dollars and economic revitalization to one of the most impoverished places in the nation.

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Santa Fe, San Dieguito Water Districts Celebrate New Solar Installation at Treatment Plant

/in , /by /San Diego Union-Tribune

The Santa Fe Irrigation District and San Dieguito Water District held a ribbon-cutting ceremony on March 31 to mark the completion of a new solar project at the R.E. Badger Filtration Treatment Plant in Rancho Santa Fe, expected to produce about 80% of the jointly owned plant’s annual energy needs.

According to a news release, the new solar installation atop the plant’s clearwell structure will generate 574 KW of clean, renewable energy to help power facility operations, reduce long-term electricity costs and lower both districts’ carbon footprint. The project will provide a total benefit of approximately $4 million over the solar panels’ 25-year lifespan.

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Six Years Later, Poway’s Water Future Is Secure

/in , /by /NBC 7by Joe Little

The largest capital improvement project in Poway’s history is almost complete, reports NBC 7’s Joe Little.

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Record High Ocean Temperatures off Southern California Raise Fears of Prolonged Marine Heatwave

/in , /by /The Guardianby Roque Planas

For more than a century, shoreline stations operated by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography have measured water temperatures along the California coast. This year, they are flashing a warning sign.

Over the last three months, several stations have repeatedly posted record-breaking daily high temperatures – with the La Jolla station registering temperatures a full 10F above historical average at one point last month.

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What You Need To Know About Desalination, a Growing Source of Drinking Water

/in , /by /Times of San Diego

As climate change intensifies droughts, disrupts rainfall patterns and fuels wildfires, more regions are turning to the sea for drinking water.

Desalination, which is the process of removing salt from seawater, offers a way to produce freshwater in regions that lack sufficient rain, rivers or groundwater to meet demand. Today, it supplies water to hundreds of millions of people worldwide, from the Middle East to the U.S., and its use is growing as water scarcity deepens.

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WaterSmart Makeover: Creating a Space of Year-Round Color in Chula Vista

/in , /by /San Diego Union-Tribuneby Caron Golden Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

Cathy Spence didn’t grow up gardening. She attributes that to the multiple moves her military family made when she was growing up — before they settled in Chula Vista. Now, she lives with her husband David in the same area — with their cute scruffy terrier mix rescue, Skipper.

They bought their house in 2018 after both retired from the military. David had been an emergency manager in the Army Corps of Engineers, while Cathy was a Department of Defense worker in the family services side of the Army and Air Force in Alaska, then in Germany, Georgia and Japan.

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Winter’s Alarmingly Low Snowpack Offers a Glimpse of the Changing Rhythm of Water in the Western U.S.

/in , /by /Times of San Diegoby Imtiaz Rangwala

Winter is more than just a season in the Western U.S. It is a savings account to get farms and homes through the long, dry summer ahead. As the snowpack that accumulates in the mountains through winter slowly melts in late spring and summer, it feeds into rivers and reservoirs that keep communities and ecosystems functioning.

The April 1 snowpack measurement has long been the single most important number in Western water management, considered a strong proxy for how much water the mountains are holding in reserve.

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