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Encinitas Students Take Home Honors in OMWD’s 2019 Water Awareness Poster Contest

/in , /by /Water News Network

Olivenhain Municipal Water District’s Board of Directors recognized the winners of the 2019 North County Water Agencies Water Awareness Poster Contest at its May 22 meeting. Fourth-grade students living or attending school within OMWD’s service area were invited to enter the contest earlier this year. The top three posters all hailed from Mrs. Goyette’s class at Flora Vista Elementary in Encinitas. “We are fortunate to have such talented young artists in our area,” stated OMWD Board President Ed Sprague. “The annual poster contest is a great way for them to show off their talent and gets students thinking about the importance of using water wisely.”

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City Of San Diego Hires New Water Department Director

/in , /by /NBC 7 San Diegoby Tom Jones

The city of San Diego has hired a new director for its Public Utilities Department, NBC 7 has learned. The department has struggled to regain customer trust after more than a year of audits and internal investigations. Shauna Lorance, currently the interim General Manager at Monterey County Water Resources, will take over the position vacated by Vic Bianes, who resigned abruptly last year. According to Lorance’s resume on LinkedIn, she also formerly worked at San Juan Water District. This comes after the mayor’s office announced earlier this year a major overhaul of its troubled water department, including the departures of five top directors and managers.

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San Diego Names New Director for Troubled Public Utilities Department

/in , /by /Times of San Diegoby Debbie L. Sklar

The city of San Diego Thursday announced the hiring of a new director for the Public Utilities Department, which has been without a permanent director since last summer. Shauna Lorance will assume the position from interim PUD Director Matt Vespi, who took over for former Director Vic Baines after he announced his retirement last August. Lorance is the interim general manager at the Monterey County Water Resources Agency and will remain in that position through the end of June, according to the city.

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Nuclear Waste From San Onofre Would Get First Dibs For Relocation Under New Bill

/in , /by /The Orange County Registerby Teri Sforza

A congressional bill that would prioritize the removal of nuclear waste from places with high population and high seismic activity — that is, San Onofre — was introduced Thursday, May 23, by U.S. Rep. Mike Levin, D-San Juan Capistrano. Some 9 million people live within 50 miles of the shuttered San Onofre Nuclear Generation Station. About 20 million live within 50 miles of New York’s Indian Point reactors, which are about to be decommissioned.

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Orange County Water Board Vacancy Draws ‘Unprecedented’ Interest After Newsom Kills Twin Tunnels Project

/in , /by /The Orange County Registerby Brooke Staggs

After much speculation about whether Janet Nguyen might run for one of Orange County’s hotly contested congressional seats in 2020, the Republican former state senator has thrown her hat in a surprising ring. And she’s not alone. Nguyen is one of seven people vying to fill a board of directors seat with the Municipal Water District of Orange County. The seat was left vacant after director Wayne Osborne, who was elected to a four-year term in 2016, retired in late April. “I was really heartened to see someone from that level interested in serving on our board,” MWDOC board president Brett Barbre said of Nguyen.

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Late-Season Rains Mask Looming Fire Danger As Lush Plants Turn Dry And Explosive

/in , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Joseph Serna and Hannah Fry

Giant green stems with budding yellow flowers greeted hikers along a narrow path beneath the soaring Santa Monica Mountains on a recent drizzly day. This is where, just seven months ago, the worst fire in Los Angeles County history swept through, destroying more than 1,000 homes and blackening miles of hillsides and canyon. But thanks to one of the wettest seasons in years, rains have transformed the fire zone back to life with great speed. And all those flowering black mustard plants point to a looming disaster once the rains finally end and Southern California shifts to its dry, hot, windy summer and fall.

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Controversial North River Farms Development Postponed Again

/in , /by /San Diego Union-Tribuneby Phil Diehl

Angry residents shouted, cursed and booed the Oceanside City Council after its 3-2 vote Wednesday to again postpone a decision on whether Integral Communities should be allowed to build hundreds of homes, a hotel and retail shops in the city’s last remaining agricultural region. The city’s planning staff and Planning Commission have three times recommended the council deny the North River Farms project, most recently on a 6-0 vote May 6. Each time, the developer has subsequently pulled the project off a City Council agenda to rework it in hopes of getting an approval. “Please do not postpone this,” said resident Jane Marshall before Wednesday’s decision.

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Bureau Of Reclamation Bumps Westside Water Allocation To 70 Percent

/in , /by /The San Joaquin Valley Sunby Daniel Gligich

The Bureau of Reclamation updated its 2019 allocation for the Central Valley Project South-of-Delta, increasing the westside water allocation to 70 percent of the contract total. “The storms experienced in the Central Valley during the past week are unusual this late in the year, bringing the month’s precipitation to over twice its average,” said Mid-Pacific Regional Director Ernest Conant in a statement. “The late storms provided an added boost to the already above average precipitation for 2019. Snowpack throughout the state is still about 150% of average for this time of year.” This is the third increase of 2019 for the agricultural water service contractors.

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An Abandoned Mine Near Joshua Tree Could Host A Massive Hydropower Project

/in , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Sammy Roth

An abandoned iron mine on the doorstep of Joshua Tree National Park could be repurposed as a massive hydroelectric power plant under a bill with bipartisan support in the state Legislature. Senate Bill 772, which was approved by a panel of lawmakers last week with no dissenting votes, would require California to build energy projects that can store large amounts of power for long periods of time. It’s a type of technology the state is likely to need as utility companies buy more and more energy from solar and wind farms, which generate electricity only when the sun is shining or the wind is blowing.

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Rain, Hail, Lightning, Thunder: Spring In Southern California Isn’t Supposed To Be Like This

/in , /by /The San Diego Union Tribune

Californians gearing up for a long Memorial Day weekend full of sun were sorely disappointed Wednesday. Rain, wind and lightning battered the state as locals braved cooler temperatures that even delivered hail. The hail may have had some residents questioning the point of living in Southern California if there is hail in late spring. The rain jammed up afternoon commutes, and lightning closed all beaches stretching from Dockweiler State Beach to Malibu for a little under two hours starting about 2:30 p.m.

 

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