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Marin Water Officials Heartened By Regional Supply Deal

/in , /by /Marin Independent Journal by Will Houston

Marin County water district officials expressed encouragement after an early agreement was reached that seeks to end longstanding conflicts of a major regional water supply 100 miles to the north. The agreement centers around the relicensing of the Potter Valley Project hydropower plant in Mendocino County, which holds a supply of water that affects fish, farmers and communities stretching from Marin to Humboldt counties. Sonoma Water, one of the main suppliers to Marin’s two water districts, draws water supplied by the power plant’s reservoirs.

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North Park Business Suffers As City Fails To Fix Leak

/in , /by /San Diego Community News Groupby J.M. Garcia

When Carol Shamon noticed water from city pipes had leaked into the basement of her North Park neighborhood business, she thought the problem would be easily fixed: Call the city and file a report. Repairs would be made, problem solved. But after two years of municipal inaction, the water remains and Shamon, who is now suing the city of San Diego’s pipe contractor, worries the foundation of her 100-year-old building may be affected. “I contacted all the departments,” said Shamon, 61, owner of Shamon Freitas Agency at 3916 Oregon St. “Everyone individually has been nice but their hands are tied, they can’t do anything because they can’t coordinate with any other department and no one does anything.”

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California Snowpack 202% Of Average For This Time Of Year

/in , , /by /AP News

The amount of snow blanketing the Sierra Nevada is even larger than the 2017 snowpack that pulled the state out of a five-year drought, California water officials said. As of Thursday, the snowpack measured 202% of average after a barrage of storms throughout winter and spring, according to the Department of Water Resources. The wet weather has slowed but not stopped, with thunderstorms prompting flash flood warnings Sunday in the central and southern parts of the state. At this time last year, the snowpack measured 6% of average — making this year 33 times bigger than 2018, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

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OPINION: Wetlands Restoration On Mission Bay Is More Important Than Ever

/in , /by /Times of San Diegoby Jim Peugh

The last several years have seen a deluge of news about infrastructure in San Diego. Whether it’s the future of the stadium site in Mission Valley, the extension of the Blue Line trolley to UCSD, or the push among urbanists to revolutionize housing in our city, refining our development footprint has taken up a sizable volume of bandwidth in our civic conversation.

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County’s Wet, Weird May Was Wonderful Out On The Farm

/in , , /by /San Diego Union-Tribuneby Robert Krier

It was wet, but it wasn’t San Diego’s wettest May. In fact, it didn’t crack the city’s top 10. It was cool, but many other Mays have been cooler, including last year. But May 2019 was certainly among the city’s all-time weirdest. And to San Diego County’s $1.77 billion agricultural industry, it was nothing short of wonderful. “We haven’t had a recent May where we’ve had something like this,” National Weather Service forecaster Miguel Miller said. “In the 20 years I’ve been here, I cannot think of another May that was inclement the entire month.”

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Two Agencies Want To Secede From The San Diego County Water Authority

/in , , /by /Voice of San Diegoby Ry Rivard Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

Water rates in San Diego are some of the highest in the country. So, two rural San Diego water agencies just came up with a novel way to save money: Buy water from Riverside County instead. Leaders of two water agencies that serve about 50,000 people in and around Fallbrook are fed up with rising costs at the San Diego County Water Authority. Local water agencies from across the region formed the Water Authority in 1944 to import water into the county from rivers hundreds of miles away. But, just in time for the Water Authority’s 75th anniversary, its future as the region’s main water supplier is in question.

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Bill To Help Eagle Mountain Hydroelectric Storage Project Outside Joshua Tree Derailed

/in , /by /The Desert Sun (Palm Springs)by Evan Wyloge

Despite the efforts of a handful of Riverside County lawmakers, a controversial bill that would pave the way for a massive hydroelectric energy storage project on the edge of Joshua Tree National Park has been shelved for now, leaving the Eagle Mountain project still without a clear path forward.  The project would use abandoned iron mining pits to store billions of gallons of groundwater, pumped from the Chuckwalla Valley aquifer. Once operational, the facility would use abundant daytime solar power to pump water from a lower retention area to a higher elevation.

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OPINION: Enjoy Our Agricultural Bounty

/in , /by /Village News (Fallbrook)by Marie Waldron

The northern San Diego County region plays a big part in making California the nation’s leading agricultural state. Locally grown crops that include avocados, citrus, strawberries, grapes and cut flowers have put San Diego in the top tier of the nation’s agricultural counties. According to the San Diego County Farm Bureau, San Diego is the 10th largest farm economy out of more than 3,000 counties nationwide.

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Naturalists Say Changing Water Levels At Lake Hodges Are Disrupting Nesting

/in , /by /San Diego Union-Tribuneby Ernie Cowan Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

A coalition of wildlife and conservation groups has contacted the City of San Diego with concerns about sudden changes in water levels at Lake Hodges that are destroying spring nesting sites for Western and Clark’s grebes. Lake Hodges is a city-owned water storage facility that has become a prime nesting location for the large aquatic birds. Spring nesting season attracts birders from all over to monitor and observe the courting, nesting and rearing of chicks. Grebes build their nests on partially submerged sticks and branches at water level. Brian Caldwell is a resident of Del Dios, a neighborhood adjacent to the lake and operator of Lake Hodges Photo Tours.

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Feds Dodge Claims Of Violating California Water Law

/in , , /by /Courthouse News Service (Pasadena, Calif.)by Nicholas Iovino

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation on Friday successfully dodged claims its management of a California dam violates state law and threatens the survival of endangered steelhead trout, but the legal battle is far from over. U.S. District Judge Edward Chen rejected a move by conservationists to add the United States as a “necessary party” to a state court action involving disputed rights to water from the Twitchell Dam and Reservoir in San Luis Obispo County.

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