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Elfin Forest Recreational Reserve Celebrates Decade Of Outdoor Education

/in , , /by /Water News Network Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

Residents, volunteers, and officials gathered June 1 at the Elfin Forest Recreational Reserve in Escondido to celebrate the 10th anniversary of its Interpretive Center honoring Susan J. Varty. Located at OMWD’s Elfin Forest Recreational Reserve, the center was constructed as a centerpiece of environmental education through a cooperative effort between OMWD and the Escondido Creek Conservancy. “As we celebrate ten years of operation, we couldn’t be more proud of what we have accomplished by working together,” said OMWD Board Secretary Robert Kephart. “Yet, without the dedicated support of docents and donors, this one-of-a-kind facility with its many successful education programs would not have been possible. We also honor their efforts today.”

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Fixes Could Finally Be Coming For Mexico’s Cross-Border Sewage Spills

/in , , /by /KPBSby Erik Anderson

Local officials plan to huddle over the next few weeks to pick a strategy to control the region’s cross-border pollution problem. San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer was the first local politician to say he is ready to take action to stop the cross-border pollution flows.He told a gathering of stakeholders who met in Coronado that he wants local officials to commit to a solution and to get underway. Faulconer asked that the solution be comprehensive and come with a price tag.

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‘We Couldn’t Even Take Showers’: Californians With Unsafe Drinking Water Appeal For Fixes

/in , , /by /The Sacramento Beeby Kyung Mil Lee

A coalition of California residents affected by unsafe drinking water held a symbolic “water strike” at the Capitol on Wednesday, pressing lawmakers to fund a plan that would clean up their water sources. More than 1 million Californians lack access to clean drinking water, according to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration. An additional 2 million people are vulnerable to contamination, according to the Safe and Affordable Drinking Water Fund Coalition. “We cannot claim to be the Golden State when we have 1 million Californians without access to clean and affordable water,” said Daniel Peñaloza, City Council Member from Porterville in Tulare County. “This is an injustice and a disgrace.”

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Two North County Districts Contemplating Exit From The San Diego County Water Authority

/in , , /by /San Diego Union-Tribuneby J. Harry Jones Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

Two water districts in northern San Diego County are exploring the possibility of leaving the San Diego County Water Authority and buying their water instead from an agency in southern Riverside County, a move one district says could save it as much as $6 million annually. It is the first time in the Water Authority’s 75-year history that such a move has been considered by any of its 24 member agencies, officials say, and it likely would be challenged. Both the Rainbow Municipal Water District and the Fallbrook Public Utility Department have been discussing the move for several months. A lawyer for the Water Authority read a public statement at the authority’s most recent board meeting on May 23, making it public knowledge.

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Water, Water Everywhere: Good And Bad Of California’s Rising Reservoir Levels

/in , , /by /Fox KTVUby Tom Vacar

Use it or lose it” is what state and federal water managers in California are wrestling with as one of the biggest precipitation years has the mountains packed with snow and reservoirs loaded to the brim. For the state, water is liquid gold that feeds many people, animals, trees, and industries. But, if not well managed, it can also present great danger.

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In Quest for Bigger Batteries, California Mulls Century-Old Idea

/in , , /by /Bloomberg by David R Baker Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority
Quoted: San Diego County Water Authority

As the sun sets on California’s solar farms, a backup energy source deep in the Sierra Nevada Mountains springs to life. The huge system of reservoirs and turbines can store energy during the day and then crank out electricity for 900,000 homes, using just water and gravity.

As the state tries to make wind and solar work around the clock, officials want to build more like it. It won’t be easy: such projects take years to develop, are expensive and face stiff opposition.he push by California and other states to revive the century-old technology — called “pumped-hydro storage” — underscores the limitations of modern batteries.

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OPINION: Hydropower Is A Clean Energy Source. Why Don’t California Lawmakers Grasp This?

/in , , /by /San Diego Union-Tribune

The reality of climate change is properly framed in potentially apocalyptic terms. Without cleaner energy, the atmosphere will keep heating, and extreme weather will be more common, disruptive and deadly. Hence the need for an “all of the above” clean-energy strategy. Yet too many environmentalists oppose hydropower and nuclear power. These energy sources have their downsides — the impact on aquatic life and nuclear waste storage among them — but if climate change is an existential threat, opposing their use doesn’t make any sense.

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OPINION: Toxic Drinking Water Is A Public Health Crisis. Here’s A Path To Urgent Action

/in , , /by /Sacramento Beeby Lezlie Sterling and Ryan Sabalow

Water is a basic necessity of life, but over one million Californians lack access to clean, safe and affordable drinking water, says Gov. Gavin Newsom. Six million Californians receive their water from operators who have been fined for violating the state’s clean water laws in recent years, according to a 2018 investigation by McClatchy. “In many communities, people drink, shower, cook and wash dishes with water containing excessive amounts of pollutants, including arsenic, nitrates and uranium,” according to a Sacramento Bee story by Dale Kasler, Phillip Reese and Ryan Sabalow. Many of those affected by the lack of safe water live in poorer and more rural areas, and a big portion of those communities are here in the Central Valley.

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Conservation Has Saved 4.8 Million Acre Feet Of Water Since 2003

/in , , /by /Imperial Valley Press (El Centro, Calif.)by Michael Maresh

Since 2003, Imperial Irrigation District has conserved almost 4.8 million acre feet of water, mostly through water transfers and agreements. A 1988 agreement between IID and the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California near Los Angles has amounted to 1.56 million of that amount since 2003 at the Imperial Dam.

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These California Environmental Bills Made It To The Next Round

/in , , /by /KQED (San Francisco)by Kevin Stark

For California bills and their sponsors, Friday was pass-or-die time in the Legislature. It’s an annual rite of spring: If on a certain date proposed bills don’t pass out of their house of origin, be it the Assembly or the Senate, they die for the year. This year, the Legislature considered a slate of new environmental policies. A bill that prohibits California from authorizing new oil and gas infrastructure on state public lands, AB 342, moved on to the Senate.  A bill that would require smog checks for semitrucks, SB 210, moved on to the Assembly.

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