As hot, dry and disastrous as the last few years have been, it appears that the chaos caused by a warming planet is just getting started. Though the hottest year in nearly two centuries was recorded only last year, the world will probably shatter that record yet again by 2029, according to a new report from the World Meteorological Organization, the climate and weather arm of the United Nations.
Lawyers for the Sweetwater Authority water agency are demanding that former authority board member Josie Calderon-Scott retract claims she made recently to Voice of San Diego that the authority knew about elevated levels of toxic industrial chemicals in its main reservoir years before alerting the public. But Calderon-Scott said she’s not backing down. And she challenged the authority to produce documents that she said would settle the issue.
Local farmers are fighting against a plan to sharply reduce their special water rate discount, contending it could wipe out much of the county’s already-shrinking agriculture industry. The cash-strapped County Water Authority says it must roll back the longtime rate discount it now gives to roughly 1,000 local farmers because of dropping demand and changes to the authority’s business model.
Water began flowing from a pipe onto hundreds of acres of dry, sunbaked lake bed as California officials filled a complex of shallow ponds near the south shore of the Salton Sea in an effort to create wetlands that will provide habitat for fish and birds, and help control lung-damaging dust around the shrinking lake. The project represents the state’s largest effort to date to address the environmental problems plaguing the Salton Sea, which has been steadily retreating and leaving growing stretches of dusty lake bottom exposed to the desert winds.
As the Colorado River’s giant reservoirs have declined during the last two decades, even larger amounts of water have been pumped and drained from underground, according to new research based on data from NASA satellites.
I used to have no problem with tap water. I grew up in Cincinnati with parents who, at dinner, filled a pitcher straight from our kitchen sink. In St. Louis during college, I subsisted on campus water fountains. I later moved to New York, which boasts “the Champagne of tap water” and claims it to be the secret ingredient in its bagels. During a two-year stint in Montana, I went on long hikes and sipped stream water, shockingly cold and straight from the glaciers, but other than that, I drank from the tap. And then I landed in Los Angeles, where everyone I met used a filter.
The San Diego County Water Authority operates an impressive water delivery system capable of delivering up to 900 million gallons of water a day. But as the infrastructure naturally ages, it’s critical to actively monitor, replace, and repair pipelines to maintain water supply reliability.
Taking a look at our very important California water grid, I’m ABC 10 Chief Meteorologist Monica Woods, and when we look at the overview of all of this, we have our main groundwater basins, which are what’s underneath the ground, as well as our main aboveground storage and conveyance systems.
Once upon a time, San Diego’s lakes were award-winning assets renowned for unparalleled fishing and boating. Tourism from competitive engagements and visits for families from across the world supported the lakes that reflected the outdoor-oriented activity that is embedded in San Diego’s culture. Today, those lakes are still here. They are still extraordinary city assets that support recreation, but the truth of the issue is that they are no longer the destinations they once were, and are not supported as such.
Fifteen California lawmakers from both parties are up in arms over Gov. Gavin Newsom’s latest proposal to to use the budget process to fast-track the Delta tunnel — a deeply controversial, $20 billion plan to replumb the estuary and funnel more water south. With the clock ticking for the Legislature to pass a budget bill tackling the state’s $12 billion deficit, Newsom dropped a spending plan last week that would add sweeping changes to permitting, litigation, financing, and eminent domain and land acquisition issues aimed at speeding approval of the massive project.
