It’s Beef Week at Voice of San Diego which means our journalists are unpacking some of the biggest battles in the region. I wrote about the recent divorce between two North County water agencies from the San Diego County Water Authority and you can read it here.
A blanket of bright green alfalfa spreads across western Arizona’s McMullen Valley, ringed by rolling mountains and warmed by the hot desert sun.
About 3 miles east of Bombay Beach, and a half-mile back from the Salton Sea’s receding shoreline, the crunchy exposed playa gives way from a mostly empty white landscape to more and more native vegetation, and then suddenly a few shallow ponds appear, surrounded by dense vegetation.
Imperial County Board of Supervisors are expected to approve a letter expressing concerns of high water rates affecting Calipatria and Niland residents on Tuesdsay.
Tuesday’s agenda includes an item to approve a letter to be submitted to the California Public Utilities Commission regarding the high cost of water services provided by Golden State Water Company, or GSWC, in the communities of Calipatria and Niland.
Two of the San Diego County Water Authority’s smallest customers — avocado and citrus farming communities in North County tired of paying ever-rising water rates to urbanize San Diego — were prepared to leave quietly in search of cheaper water elsewhere.
On Nov. 16, the Santa Fe Irrigation District Board of Directors approved an approximate 5% rate increase effective January 1, 2024.
According to a news release, the increase does not reflect any increase in costs from Santa Fe Irrigation District; it is the full pass-through of costs from the San Diego County Water Authority, the region’s wholesale water provider.
Located just over an hour north of Sacramento in Glenn and Colusa counties lies 14,000 acres of grassland, streams and the main canal of the two counties’ shared irrigation district.
It’s the site of the planned Sites Reservoir, which has long been eyed as a possible place to store excess surface water from across California. The project was first proposed in the 1950s, but failed — and was re-proposed several times since then. Now, after roughly 70 years and several iterations, the off-river storage basin west of the Sacramento Valley is being streamlined and moving forward.
The Rainbow Municipal Water District (RMWD) General Manager, Jake Willey, has been appointed to represent RMWD on the San Diego County Water Authority (SDCWA) Board of Directors. Wiley is assigned to serve on the Water Authority Administrative and Finance, and Engineering and Operations committees.
Wiley’s appointment stems from the retirement of former General Manager Tom Kennedy, who served as the district’s representative on the Water Authority Board for nine years during his tenure with the district.
If you don’t already know, it will surprise you to learn that for all the attention that our state’s water supply receives in California – for all the worry and effort it takes to make sure there’s enough for our 40 million residents, 24 million acres of farmland, countless acres of natural environment, and status as the world’s fifth-largest economy (of which its agriculture and environment are huge parts) – no statewide goal exists to ensure a sustainable water supply for California’s future. What big, bold vision has ever been achieved without first setting a goal?
California’s biggest water supplier is hurting for cash this year as the recent record-breaking rainy winter means its customers need to buy less water.
The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California is facing a more than $300 million budget shortfall – about a quarter of its normal revenue from selling water.
The Water News Network is San Diego County’s source for water news and information.
