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Bezos Earth Fund Gives Salk $30 Million for Climate Change Mitigation Project

Salk’s Harnessing Plants Initiative will receive $30 million from the Bezos Earth Fund to advance efforts to increase the ability of crop plants, such as corn and soybeans, to capture and store atmospheric carbon via their roots in the soil. This work will explore carbon-sequestration mechanisms in six of the world’s most prevalent crop species with the goal of increasing the plants’ carbon-storage capacity.

Benefits Bubble Up: Wastewater Treatment

What makes Bear Republic Brewing Company special is just how conscious its chief operating officer and master brewer is of water’s impact on the business and its local community.

Bear Republic was established in Sonoma County, California, in 1995 by the Norgrove family, and opened its first brew pub in January of 1997 in Healdsburg, California. In November of that year, Peter Kruger was hired to the company, launching his career path to his current position as Bear Republic Brewing Company master brewer and chief operating officer.

At the time he was hired, Kruger said the wastewater from the beer making process was sent through the sewer system to the municipal wastewater treatment plant.

World Water Week 2021 Goes Digital

The world’s leading annual event on water, World Water Week, has decided to go fully digital in 2021 to ensure that this important conference can take place despite the ongoing pandemic. The Week will be held 23-27 August 2021 under the theme Building Resilience Faster.

World Water Week typically attracts 4,000 people from more than 135 countries to Stockholm, where the conference has been held since 1991. Next year, however, the organizers at Stockholm International Water Institute have decided to hold the entire event online.

Region’s Water Quality Celebrated by Switchfoot Musician Jon Foreman

As part of its campaign to promote the quality of local water supplies, the San County Diego Water Authority and its 24 member agencies have partnered with Encinitas resident and Grammy-award winning musician Jon Foreman of Switchfoot to create a series of videos highlighting how tap water across the region meets or exceeds stringent state and federal standards.

The new videos are part of the Water Authority’s regional Trust the Tap outreach and education platform, which was launched in early 2020 to assure the public about the safety of water during the coronavirus pandemic.

New Water Recycling Videos on National Recycling Day

National Recycling Day on November 15 celebrates and promotes recycling practices to reduce waste and decrease energy demands, ultimately preventing pollution and fighting climate change. This year, the Water Authority partnered with the Southern California Water Coalition and other water districts and agencies to promote water recycling with a new video series.

Planning Group Hears About Huge Storage Reservoir

A full complement of 15 members of the Valley Center Community Planning Group Monday, meeting via Zoom, took up several items, all of them informational, rather than voting items. 

They listened to a report by Kirk Whitaker of the San Diego County Water Authority on the Hauck Mesa Storage Reservoir that will be constructed over the next couple of years on a location formerly occupied by a much smaller water tank once owned by the Valley Center Municipal Water District.

The SDCWA is the big agency that sells water to Valley Center. It was created by an action of the state legislature in 1944 and provides most water in the county, selling to municipalities. 

Researchers Predict More Frequent, Severe Megastorms Due to Climate Change

A study last week predicts that massive, often-devastating “hundred-year storms” may occur three times as often and be 20% more severe in the U.S. due to climate change. The researchers, in a paper published in the American Geophysical Union journal Earth’s Future, found that if greenhouse gas emissions continue to increase at a rapid rate, the continental U.S. would likely see such mega-storms every 33 years.

The occurrence of historic rainfall events, like the ones that caused Hurricane Harvey in 2017 and California’s Great Flood of 1862, are likely to increase faster than lower-magnitude events, which already happen about every decade, according to UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain.

Ignoring Mega-Flood Risk — Like California Did With Wildfire Prevention — May Spell Disaster, Experts Say

The Sacramento region is not prepared for a mega-flood and won’t be for nearly a decade, says Rick Johnson, executive director of the Sacramento Area Flood Control Agency.

First Rains of Year Didn’t Bring Much to Northern California — But Another Storm is Coming

In some places, more than an inch of precipitation fell Friday in Northern California while other places, including Sacramento, saw only a fraction of that. Whatever came down in the first rains of the season were a mere drop in the bucket.

Water Utility Hero of the Week, Matthew Carriveau, Otay Water District

This feature highlights water utility employees in the San Diego region working during the coronavirus pandemic to ensure a safe, reliable and plentiful water supply. The water industry is among the sectors that are classified as essential. Matthew Carriveau, Otay Water District Customer Pump Mechanic I, is the Water Utility Hero of the Week.