The Trump administration announced a wave of regulatory rollbacks on Wednesday including a repeal of Biden-era emissions limits on power plants and automobiles, as well as reduced protections for waterways.
When President Trump called for the federal government to “maximize” water deliveries in California, commanders of the Army Corps of Engineers quickly found two dams where they could carry out that order. And even though the officials knew the water couldn’t be moved out of the Central Vally as Trump wished, they released billions of gallons anyway, according to a newly released government document.
People in San Diego are already feeling higher costs from food, housing and electricity. Now, water rates will also soar.
This week, the San Diego City Council voted to approve a 5.5% water rate increase.
Haze hung over the Salton Sea on a recent winter day, while black-necked stilts and kildeer waded in the shallows, pecking at crustaceans. Something else emerged a few steps closer to the lakeshore: a briny, rotten egg stench wafting from the water. The Salton Sea is nearly twice as salty as the ocean, laden with agricultural runoff and susceptible to algal blooms that spew hydrogen sulfide, a noxious gas. It’s also a haven to more than 400 bird species and a key stop on the Pacific Flyway, one of North America’s main bird migration routes.
The periodically heavy rain that spread across San Diego County on Tuesday afternoon will give way to a far more powerful and potentially damaging storm late Wednesday night, packing snow and rain that will last into late Thursday, with a third drenching possible late Sunday, the National Weather Service said. Collectively, the three storms could drop more than 1.5 inches of precipitation at the coast, twice as much inland, and 2 to 4 inches of snow above the 4,000-foot level, mostly on Thursday, when temperatures will be about 10 degrees below average throughout much of the region.
After the Washington Post revealed late last week that the Army Corps of Engineers knew that releasing water from two California reservoirs at President Donald Trump’s direction in January was unlikely to reach the southern part of the state, Rep. Mike Levin, D-Calif., is demanding answers from the Pentagon and the Department of Interior for what he calls the “politically motivated, uncoordinated, unscheduled, and opaque water releases” in the Central Valley between Jan. 31 and Feb. 2.
Utah will become the first state to ban fluoride in public drinking water, despite widespread opposition from dentists and national health organizations.
Republican Gov. Spencer Cox said he would sign legislation that bars cities and communities from deciding whether to add the mineral to their water systems.
Texas senators advanced a resolution Monday that calls on the U.S. State Department to ensure Mexico meets its obligations to deliver water to the U.S. under a 1944 water treaty.
The Water, Agriculture, and Rural Affairs Committee voted in favor of the resolution after hearing testimony from state and Rio Grande Valley officials on how Mexico’s failure to deliver water has impacted the local farmers and stalled growth.
San Diego utility customers will see another upcharge on their water bills starting May 1 after a 5.5% rate adjustment was approved by the San Diego City Council last week.
The city of San Diego said the rate hike passed last Tuesday was a pass-through charge necessary to cover a 14% increase approved by the San Diego County Water Authority in July 2024.
The sprawling estuary about 70 miles inland from San Francisco feels distinctly out of place — more like the swampy Florida Everglades than arid California. But from that confluence of two great rivers, the Sacramento and the San Joaquin, 1,100 miles of webbed waterways and levees send upward of six million acre-feet of freshwater a year to thirstier parts of the state, from farms in the San Joaquin Valley to the Southern California megalopolis. Known as the California Delta, the estuary is among the state’s most important sources of water — and most consistent flash points over environmental protection.
