It’s been a tough few years for Northern California, disaster-wise. The north state has been hammered in quick succession by catastrophic drought, intense flooding and rampaging wildfires. While it’s reassuring to know such extreme events are historically uncommon, they’re also not simply a result of bad luck.
Scientists have only recently begun to understand that they share a common natural link.
As climate change continues to sap the Colorado River’s water, some users face serious legal risks to their supplies, according to a new analysis by researchers in Colorado and New Mexico.
Declining flows could force Southwest water managers to confront long-standing legal uncertainties, and threaten the water security of Upper Basin states of Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and New Mexico.
At its November 13 meeting, Olivenhain Municipal Water District’s Board of Directors recognized seven amateur photographers for their winning images captured in the 14th annual Elfin Forest Recreational Reserve photo contest.
“Every year, I am impressed with the quality of images and talent of Elfin Forest Recreational Reserve visitors,” said Bob Kephard, OMWD board secretary. “This year’s winning images put together a strong case for just how important it is to preserve open space for native habitat.”
Contest entries help to promote Elfin Forest Recreational Reserve and educate the public on the importance of wildlife and habitat protection.
A pipeline that spans almost the entire length of San Diego County is back in use after engineers spent weeks patching a massive crack in the pipe’s infrastructure.
The San Diego County Water Authority (SDCWA) discovered a leak in September to a portion of its 90-inch Pipeline 4, which has carried water since 1966 from the Skinner Water Treatment Plant near Temecula down to the Otay Reservoir near Chula Vista.
NBC 7 was the only news media outlet invited inside the pipe in September before repairs began. The pipeline was shut off Sept. 16 with the cooperation of the Water Authority’s member agencies.
Twenty years ago, people who saw a need to help people conserve water and preserve San Diego’s environment conceived the idea for a demonstration garden.
The Water Conservation Garden celebrates its 20th-anniversary Saturday, November 16 at 5 p.m. with a benefit concert featuring food and drink stations, dancing, auction items and live music provided by The Mighty Untouchables. More information and tickets are available on The Garden’s website.
Native San Diegan Jon Foreman of the Grammy-award winning band Switchfoot is among The Garden’s newest fans after a recent visit.
A gas-burning generator at a Huntington Beach power plant could keep firing until as late as 2023, following a state commission’s recent vote.
The AES facility was scheduled to close by the end of next year, but the California Public Utilities Commission voted unanimously last week to extend its operating life for up to three additional years.
Pushing back the plant’s retirement would delay remediation of the site, as well as prolong the practice of “once-through” cooling — a process that uses seawater to cool the coastal energy transformers, which can kill fish and other marine life.
From 2011 to 2016, California experienced five years of extreme drought, during which numerous high temperature records were broken. These hot, dry years were followed by the extremely wet winter of 2016 -2017, when, from October to March, an average of 31 inches of rain fell across the state, the second highest winter rainfall on record.
All that rain meant a bumper crop of grasses and other vegetation, which, as hot and dry conditions returned, likely contributed to a combustible mix of fuels that played a role in the severe fires that have swept California in the past two years.
A government oversight group has been formed to help four local entities keep Padre Dam Municipal Water District’s recycled water treatment plans flowing smoothly.
Earlier this month, representatives from Padre Dam, the city of El Cajon and the County of San Diego took part in the initial formation meeting of the East County Advanced Water Purification Joint Powers Authority. The JPA will serve as the governing body for the recycled water project.
San Diego may be riding a precipitation see-saw that’s swinging downward. After a wet year that followed an extremely dry one, rainfall could be scarce again during the 2019-20 rainfall season. It has been so far. Or, the atmospheric patterns that led to a wet and reservoir-renewing winter in California last year could return. There’s a “warm blob” in the Northern Pacific to consider, plus the influence of sea-surface temperatures along the equator. Or perhaps some unseen or poorly understood force will take charge and drive us into a wet — or dry — winter.
In north San Diego County, a testament to the San Diego County Water Authority’s proactive asset management program as Pipeline 4, one of the San Diego region’s major water pipelines, is back in regular service after a leak was repaired. Pipeline 4 resumed normal operations November 10 after nearly two months of modified operation. The leaky section was near Camino Del Rey in Bonsall, in an area with no adjacent homes or businesses.
