You are now in Media Coverage San Diego County category.

Craft Beer Industry Economic Impact In San Diego Rises To $1.2 Billion

/in , /by /Water News Network

As the nation’s “Capital of Craft,” San Diego County is home to more than 150 breweries that boast nearly 6,500 local jobs. In 2018, the regional craft beer industry produced $1.2 billion in economic impact, according to a report by California State University San Marcos and the San Diego Brewers Guild. California has more operational craft breweries than any other state in the country. As of January 2019, 155 independent craft brewers were operating in San Diego County. The regional economic benefits generated by the industry would not be possible without the safe and reliable water supply that the San Diego County Water Authority and its 24 member agencies deliver to the region every day.

Full Story

Irvine Lake Is Rebounding After Seven Years Of Drought Conditions

/in , /by /Orange County Register (Anaheim, Calif.)by Alicia Robinson

What a difference a year – and a whole lot of rain – can make for a reservoir. Irvine Lake was created in 1931 with the completion of the Santiago Dam just west of the Santa Ana Mountains. While it can hold as much as 25,000 acre feet of water (an acre foot is enough to cover a football field at one foot deep), through California’s punishing seven-year drought it often held much less. Just a year ago, the water level was at 2,700 acre feet and large swaths of parched dirt were left exposed….

Full Story

California Water Board OKs $1.3 Billion For Clean Drinking Water

/in , /by /Courthouse News Service (Pasadena, Calif.)by Maria Dinzeo

California’s water regulator voted Tuesday to spend $1.3 billion over the next 10 years to provide safe drinking water to communities throughout California. The money allocated by the State Water Resources Control Board comes from the Safe and Affordable Drinking Water Fund, created last month when Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 200. Also known as the California Safe Drinking Water Act, the legislation written by state Senator Bill Monning, D-Carmel, guarantees $130 million annually for safe drinking water through 2030, using revenue from California’s cap-and-trade program. The budget passed by the Legislature in June provides the funding for this year.

Full Story

SFO’s Plastic Water Bottle Ban Draws Mixed Reactions On First Day

/in , /by /San Francisco Chronicleby Melia Russell

At San Francisco International Airport, there was water, water, everywhere, but not a Dasani to drink. The airport’s ban on the sale of single-use plastic water bottles at restaurants, cafes and vending machines took effect on Tuesday, though travelers still had plenty of options to quench their thirst. Fiji bottles were gone from the Skyline News and Gifts in Terminal 1. The airport bodega sold water in aluminum bottles. Travelers lugged empty canisters through security. They refilled them at the airport’s more than 100 “hydration stations,” the water dispensers mounted outside most bathrooms. The fountains had no lines early Tuesday morning.

Full Story

Arsenic, Nitrate Found In California Water Systems

/in , /by /Bloomberg Environment (New York City, N.Y.)by Emily C. Dooley

California’s water quality issues are most severe in the San Joaquin Valley and Central Coast Regions, and smaller water systems face more challenges than larger suppliers, according to a new first-ever statewide analysis of drinking water. California has the fifth largest economy in the world, but more than 1 million of the state’s nearly 40 million people don’t have access to safe and affordable drinking water. The California Office of Health Hazard Assessment looked at 2,903 community water systems across the state that serve at least 15 year-round connections and evaluated them based on contaminant exposure levels, sustainability, and cost…

Full Story

Cooling Goo Sidewalks And Other Strange New Weapons In The War On Urban Heat

/in , /by /The Guardian

Los Angeles can sometimes feel like a sprawling hellscape of heat: in the northern valleys and the southern city, metal playground equipment, car steering wheels, even the ground itself effectively become weaponized. The more than 300 days of sunshine a year that for generations have made LA such an attractive place to live and visit are becoming a grave liability due to the climate crisis. The city gets so murderously hot all year-round, its residents routinely suffer heat-related death even in winter. Last summer, city residents in endured some of its highest temperatures ever recorded. Worse is likely to come.

Full Story

Reservoirs Sit Well Above Average In Late Summer Months

/in , , /by /Williamsport Sun-Gazette (Williamsport, Pa.)by John Lindt

The driest years on record continue to get farther and farther in the rearview mirror as reservoirs fill to the brim. California’s water masters have socked away a well-above average supply of snowmelt in the state’s reservoirs this summer after a wet year soaked most of the state. The Central Valley Project’s lakes north of the Delta are nicely above normal with total storage at 6,900 thousand acre feet (TAF). Trinity, Shasta, and Folsom reservoirs are at 134%, 134%, and 138% of their 15-year average storages respectively. The carryover is a wonderful insurance policy as California ponders if the 2019/20 water year could deliver another wet one or by contrast, a duster.

Full Story

The Fault Line And The Dams

/in , , /by /East Bay Express (Oakland, Calif.)by Erin Banks Rusby

The earthquakes that rocked Kern County in early July are a potent reminder of the East Bay’s own seismic risk. Last year, the U.S. Geological Survey imagined what could happen during a 7.0 quake on the Hayward Fault, which stretches 74 miles from north San Pablo Bay past San Jose. This so-called “HayWired Scenario” envisioned 800 people dying, 18,000 more being injured, and widespread damage occurring to property and infrastructure. The study also predicted that the surface of the earth would rupture in places “where the fault is currently creeping.” Some fault lines, which mark the edge of plates in the earth’s crust, only move during earthquakes.

Full Story

California Set To Authorize $1.3 Billion Safe Drinking Water Program

/in , /by /Bloomberg Environment (New York City, N.Y.)by Emily C. Dooley

The more than 1 million Californians without access to safe, affordable drinking water may soon see money flowing for water districts to regionalize, consolidate, install treatment, or take other actions to improve water quality. California’s State Water Resources Control Board is set to vote Aug. 20 on authorizing a safe and affordable drinking water program that would provide $1.3 billion over 10 years for those efforts and allow the hiring of 23 employees to help the state fund short- and long-term solutions. Arsenic, lead, nitrates, and other contaminants are present in water systems from the Mexican border to the…

Full Story

A Report Shows Trump’s Water Plan Would Hurt California Salmon. The Government Hid It

/in , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Bettina Boxall

Federal officials suppressed a lengthy environmental document that details how one of California’s unique salmon runs would be imperiled by Trump administration plans to deliver more water to Central Valley farms. The July 1 assessment, obtained by The Times, outlines how proposed changes in government water operations would harm several species protected by the Endangered Species Act, including perilously low populations of winter-run salmon, as well as steelhead trout and killer whales, which feed on salmon. But the 1,123-page document was never released.

Full Story