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Wildfire Concerns Prompting SDG&E To Upgrade Infrastructure, Explore New Technology

/in , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby David Garrick

San Diego Gas & Electric is upgrading its infrastructure and expanding its use of technology to limit the risk of wildfires and reduce the time it takes to restore service afterward. More than 14,000 wooden power poles have been replaced by steel versions, special cameras have been placed on 16 mountaintops and 177 weather stations are monitoring winds and moisture, an SDG&E official told a City Council committee last week.

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Cardiff Beach Living Shoreline Project Construction To Start

/in , /by /Del Mar Times

The City of Encinitas awarded a construction contract for the Cardiff Beach Living Shoreline Project at the City Council meeting on Sept. 26. The shoreline between Restaurant Row and South Cardiff State Beach is vulnerable to coastal flooding during large storm events and projected sea level rise. The city has partnered with the California Department of Parks & Recreation (DPR), California State Coastal Conservancy (SCC), United States Fish and Wildlife Service, and the San Elijo Lagoon Conservancy with grants from the SCC and the Ocean Protection Council to reduce the vulnerability of Coast Highway 101 to flooding, create coastal dune habitat, create a pedestrian path along the dunes, and beneficially reuse sand from future San Elijo Lagoon annual dredging operations.

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Proposals to Save Salton Sea Evaluated

/in , /by /Water Desalination Report

Plans to incorporate the Salton Sea into a proposed Southwest Pacific Water Plan are at least as old as this newspaper. WDR first mentioned such a plan in its second issue in February 1965, and three years later, noted, “The Salton Sea is getting too salty; it faces certain death or the oblivion of a great salt lake or dead sea – unless another Bureau of Reclamation study to preserve it as a live sea can reverse present orders.”

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San Diego at Crossroads on 100 Percent Green Power Pledge

/in , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby Joshua Emerson Smith

Republican Mayor Kevin Faulconer is facing one of the biggest decisions in his more than four years as head of the city of San Diego — whether to approve a government-run alternative to San Diego Gas & Electric. The choice, expected in coming weeks, represents a sharp fork on the road to fulfilling the mayor’s ambitious pledge of running the city on 100 percent renewable energy by 2035. The success of the city’s Climate Action Plan largely hinges on meeting the target. Within two decades, nearly half of all annual greenhouse-gas reductions achieved by the city are expected to come from increased use of renewable energy.

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Popular Fallbrook Hiking Destination Preserved by FPUD Deal

/in , /by /Water News Network

The parking lot at the Sandia Creek trailhead was supposed to be 150 feet under water, if everything had gone as planned. The land was supposed to be flooded and turned into a dam. That would have made for some beautiful lakefront property in Fallbrook. But things didn’t quite turn out as planned back in the 1960s when Fallbrook Public Utility District purchased 1,384 acres of rural property there. The intent was to dam the Santa Margarita River and share the water with Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton. But many things got in the way of that plan. War happened. Leadership faces changed.

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Major Climate Report Describes A Strong Risk Of Crisis As Early As 2040

/in , /by /The New York Timesby Coral Davenport

A landmark report from the United Nations’ scientific panel on climate change paints a far more dire picture of the immediate consequences of climate change than previously thought and says that avoiding the damage requires transforming the world economy at a speed and scale that has “no documented historic precedent.”

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Deeply Talks: Drought on the Colorado – Can We Adapt to Changing Runoff?

/in , /by /Water Deeply (New York)by Matt Weiser

Snowmelt is shrinking and runoff is coming earlier on the Upper Colorado River, the source of 90 percent of water for 40 million people in the West. This is leading to vegetation changes, water quality issues and other concerns. But it may be possible to operate reservoirs differently to ease some of these effects. In September’s episode of Deeply Talks, we spoke with two experts about the consequences and opportunities of these changes on the river.

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California Water Woes: Ballot Measure Aims at Solutions, but at a Steep Cost

/in , /by /San Francisco Chronicleby Kurtis Alexander

The biggest ticket item on California’s November ballot, tucked between the governor’s race and local elections, is $8.9 billion in bonds to help modernize California’s sprawling waterworks. The measure, which was authored by a former state water director, would fund scores of projects, from shiny new desalination plants to upgrades of old dams and aqueducts to restoration of tainted watersheds, including San Francisco Bay. The initiative, Proposition 3, comes as a historic drought has exposed the vulnerabilities of California’s water infrastructure, and it has become apparent that hotter, drier times ahead will test the adequacy of state supplies.

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Yes, that’s Snow in the Sierra and More is Expected this Weekend

/in , /by /The Mercury News (San Jose)

Barely a week past summer, some Sierra Nevada peaks have received a dusting of snow — and a bigger accumulation is possible this weekend. The unsettled weather and brisker-than-normal temperatures that have lingered in the Bay Area this week brought hail and snow to the higher elevations of the Lake Tahoe area. The National Weather Service’s Reno office said that another wave of precipitation Friday night and Saturday could see an accumulation of 1 to 2 inches of snow at the higher passes, such as Tioga and Sonora. The greatest chance of snow showers at Yosemite’s Tuolumne Meadows is after 11 p.m. Saturday, the weather service said.

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Painters Sentenced for Dumping Lead Paint into San Diego Storm Drain System

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

he CEO and two employees of a Riverside County-based painting company were sentenced after pleading guilty to contaminating San Diego’s storm water system by power-washing painted curbs and allowing toxic lead paint chips to flow into storm drains, City Attorney Mara Elliott announced Friday. The trio were placed on probation and ordered to pay more than$12,000 in fines and restitution, Elliott said. Ochoa Striping Services Inc. was contracted to sandblast paint from curbs in a Del Cerro neighborhood, Elliott said. That method of paint removal would have allowed workers to safely clean up and dispose of hazardous material.

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