The Metropolitan Water District decided Monday that, after about a year of closed-door negotiations, it would go public with an offer to settle its long legal battle with the San Diego County Water Authority.
Both sides have spent about $20 million each fighting for years about how much the San Diego agency should have to pay Metropolitan to deliver water San Diego bought from Imperial County farmers in a 2003 deal.
Dangerous fire weather is returning to broad swaths of Northern California at the same time as Southern California is expecting its first winter storm of the season to produce widespread rain.
And the two events are related.
Red flag warnings sounding the alarm for fire weather for parts of the Bay Area and northern Sacramento Valley will go into effect from 4 a.m. Wednesday through 7 a.m. Thursday for strong, dry winds coming from the north and northeast. Velocities of 20 to 30 mph are expected, with gusts as high as 45 mph and perhaps in excess of 60 mph near such locations as Mt. St. Helena and Mt. Diablo.
It’s been warmer than normal. It’s been drier than normal. For most of the region, it hasn’t rained more than a sprinkle or a brief thunderstorm here or there in about six months.
Northern California weather has done a relatively quick 180 in 2019. Heavy rain coming via “atmospheric river” systems drenched the Sacramento Valley, created some flood concerns and filled reservoirs to healthy levels this January through March.
But what spring 2019 had plenty of, fall 2019 has had nearly zilch.
Expecting new and more challenging negotiations to face the Imperial Irrigation District, its board Monday afternoon adopted a new set of parameters that define the scope of the district’s role in the coordinated operations of the river.
The resolution will establish Colorado River parameters as IID looks ahead to 2026 when new negotiations will define its role.
The Coachella Valley Water District on Monday approved taking on outside financing for what is believed to be the first time in its 101-year history for a $40 million pipeline to bring more Colorado River water to the region’s farmers, freeing up valuable groundwater for other uses.
A majority of the board voted Monday at a special meeting to give staff the go-ahead to pursue short-term, low-interest “bridge” financing for the Oasis pipeline project, by drawing on a $75 million line of credit CVWD obtained with Bank of the West on July 1.
A two-day conference in San Diego and Tijuana seeks to forge regional solutions for cross-border water issues by breaking down academic, political and administrative boundaries.
The theme of RE:BORDER 2019 is “The Water We Share.” RE:BORDER is a new initiative from San Diego State University President Adela de la Torre that each year will examine a significant transborder issue of the California-Baja California border region in partnership with our Mexican university and community collaborators.
The nearest water station for Darlene Yazzie is nine miles away at the Dennehotso Chapter House — or community center — in the Four Corners region of the Navajo Nation. On Tuesday, she counted her dimes and nickels to pay for water. It costs $1.10 plus gas money to fill up two 50-gallon barrels and she’s just been told the price is going up next month.
Longtime Otay Water District General Manager Mark Watton, regarded as one of the architects of the historic water-transfer agreement with the Imperial Irrigation District, will retire next year.
Watton, who has represented the water interests of Otay, the county and the state for more than 30 years, said he intends to step down in late February.
“Looking back on my career, I’m fully satisfied,” he said.
Anyone who has taken a weekend drive into San Diego’s backcountry — along state Route 78 between Ramona and Julian or state Route 79 from Santa Ysabel to the Riverside County border — knows that the local winery industry is booming.
You can’t go more than a mile or so without seeing a directional sign to a boutique winery where vineyards and often tasting rooms await.
The power company NRG will need a few extra months to demolish the old Encina Power Station on Carlsbad Boulevard, but the work will start on schedule and there’s no chance of preserving the plant’s signature seaside smokestack, officials said.
The Carlsbad City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved an extension of up to nine months to complete the demolition. Under an agreement NRG signed with the city in 2014, work was required to begin this December and be finished in two years.
