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San Diego’s Climate Crisis: The Risks And Costs Of Living In The Backcountry

/in , /by /KPBSby Claire Trageser

Pete Beauregard squints in the morning sun as he thinks back to October 22, 2007.

“That wind hit us at about 120 mph, wind with fire,” he said. “It came head on and it was like a blow torch, it just cut everything to the ground.”

He’s talking about the Witch Creek Fire, which engulfed San Diego County that fall — scorching nearly 200,000 acres, forcing half a million evacuations and destroying more than 1,000 homes. Among them was the Ramona home shared by Beauregard and his wife Amy McQuillan.

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Will Climate Change Mean Less Farming in the West?

/in , , /by /Civil Eats by Twilight Greenaway

Colorado and California are rethinking water management for a hotter, drier future, while balancing urban water needs with the benefits agriculture brings to rural communities.

Most years, ranchers in Wyoming irrigate their land with water from the Green River—a tributary of the Colorado—in the summer so they have forage to feed their cattle late in the season.

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WateReuse Symposium Showcases City of San Diego’s Pure Water

/in , , /by /Water News Network

Locally-roasted coffee and home brewed beer made with purified recycled water from the City of San Diego’s Pure Water Demonstration Facility was showcased Sept. 10 in San Diego during two special events at the 34th annual WateReuse Symposium.

Pure Water San Diego presented two events featuring beverages made with a key ingredient: purified recycled water.

In the afternoon, symposium attendees were served hot- and cold-brewed coffee made by locally-owned Bird Rock Coffee Roasters. In the evening, a symposium reception featured a “Pure Brew” competition where attendees judged the best of 10 home brewed beers from members of San Diego’s Quality Ale and Fermentation Fraternity.

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The Latest: Snow Falling On I-80 On Top Of Sierra Nevada

/in , , /by /AP News

It’s still technically summer but snow is falling in the Sierra along the California-Nevada line.

California transportation officials posted a photo on the Caltrans District 3 Twitter account shortly after noon Monday showing snow accumulating on U.S. Interstate 80 at the top of Donner Summit about 10 miles (16 kilometers) west of Truckee, California.

Caltrans is urging motorists to slow down.

A strong cold front packing winds gusting up to 50 mph (80 kph) sent sending temperatures plummeting Monday across western Nevada.

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OCWD Greenlights Final Phase Of Groundwater Replenishment System

/in , /by /CWEA (Oakland, Calif.)

The Orange County Water District (OCWD; the District) Board of Directors voted to award the contract to construct the 30 million gallon per day (MGD) Final Expansion of the world-renowned Groundwater Replenishment System (GWRS) to Shimmick Construction Company, Inc. The overall project cost is $310 million with the construction portion being approximately $200 million.

The project will create an additional 31,000 acre-feet per year (AFY) of new water supplies to serve north and central Orange County bringing the total production of the GWRS to 134,000 AFY, enough water for one million people. Construction is estimated to be completed in 2023.

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Removing Dams Is Key To Fish Recovery

/in , /by /mtshasta news.com (Mount Shasta, Calif.)by Robert Lusardi

A 2017 comprehensive study of salmon, steelhead and trout in California showed that half of the steelhead and salmon populations native to the Klamath River are in danger of extinction within the next 50 years. Removing the four aging hydroelectric dams from the river would significantly improve ecological and geomorphic conditions throughout the Klamath watershed and play a key role in returning these fish to stable population levels.

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Work Continues At Lake Oroville Dam

/in , /by /Appeal-Democrat (Marysville, Calif.)by Jake Abbott

The California Department of Water Resources still has unfinished business at Lake Oroville, despite completion of major construction on the spillways earlier this year following the 2017 events that triggered more than 180,000 people living downstream to evacuate.

Major construction on the main spillway that was heavily damaged in 2017 was completed this spring by Kiewit Infrastructure West Co., along with the emergency spillway next to it. The company’s contract work is expected to be substantially complete this December with the contractor fully offsite by next spring.

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New General Manager Dives Into Work At Water District

/in , /by /Del Mar Times by Joe Tash Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

Albert Lau has spent his entire professional career of more than two decades in the water industry, focused on issues related to bringing safe, affordable drinking water to the public.

“I got the water bug in college,” said Lau, 51, a resident of Olivenhain, who earned an undergraduate degree in civil engineering, and water resources and treatment, at Cal Poly Pomona. He later earned graduate degrees in engineering and business at the University of Colorado and San Diego State University, respectively.

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Newsom Plans To Veto Bill That Would Have Blocked Trump’s Rollback Of Endangered Species Protections

/in , , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribune by Phil Willon

Gov. Gavin Newsom plans to veto a bill passed by California lawmakers that would have allowed the state to impose strict endangered species protections and water pumping restrictions for the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.

Newsom’s intentions, confirmed by his spokesman on Saturday, comes less than 24 hours after state lawmakers passed the sweeping legislation.

 

The overall intent of the bill was to shield California from the Trump administration’s rollbacks of environmental laws and workplace protections, but Newsom said the legislation fell short of that promise.

 

 

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Pure Water Monterey Recycled Water Project Delays Continue

/in , /by /Monterey Heraldby Jim Johnson

Completion and operation of the much-anticipated Pure Water Monterey recycled water project have been delayed again and it is now expected to miss another key water delivery deadline set for the end of this year.

But an accelerated proposed timeline envisions California American Water starting to extract water banked in the Seaside basin from the recycled water project by February or March, before the current six-month waiting period.

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