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REPORT SUMMARY: The Magnitude of California’s Water Challenges

/in , /by /Maven's Notebook

California is on the brink of a water crisis, with projections showing a potential decrease in water availability by 4.6 to 9 million acre-feet yearly.  Despite conservation efforts, scarcity is inevitable, according to a new report titled “The Magnitude of California’s Water Challenges.”

Commissioned by the California Municipal Utilities Association and written by Jay Lund at UC Davis, Josue Medellín-Azuara at UC Merced, and Alvar Escriva-Bou with UCLA, the report outlines the state’s water management issues and predicts future water losses.  These estimates aim to guide public policy and investment choices in addressing California’s pressing water concerns.

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California’s Water Innovation: Technologies Driving Sustainability in the Golden State

/in , /by /San Diego Community Newspaper Group

Water is critical to California’s economic development, supporting environmental preservation as well as extensive agricultural, industrial, and recreational activities. The high demand for water, particularly in the hot summer months when prolonged droughts and water shortages are common, is fueling growing conflict between different user groups and regions over water availability.

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OPINION: The Case for Water Rate Increases

/in , /by /Voice of San Diegoby Jim Madaffer and Gary Arant Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

Most San Diegans don’t often think about the journey water takes before reaching our faucets. It involves hundreds of miles of pipes, multiple treatment plants and countless moving parts to deliver a reliable water supply to our region, which has nowhere near enough natural water sources to sustain us.

Any disruption along the way could have serious implications for local families and businesses. As a result, regular maintenance isn’t just a good idea, it’s an absolute necessity.

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OPINION: Deferring Maintenance on our Water System is a Risk We Can’t Afford to Take

/in , /by /Times of San Diegoby Jim Madaffer and Gary Arant Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

Most San Diegans don’t often think about the journey that water takes before reaching our faucets. It involves hundreds of miles of pipes, multiple treatment plants and countless moving parts to deliver a reliable water supply to our region, which has nowhere near enough natural water sources to sustain us.

Any disruption along the way could have serious implications for local families and businesses. As a result, regular maintenance isn’t just a good idea, it’s an absolute necessity.

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San Diego’s Water Prices Face Doomsday Increase

/in , /by /Voice of San Diegoby MacKenzie Elmer Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

Thursday is doomsday for water prices in San Diego.

That’s when the region’s water importer – the San Diego County Water Authority – debates whether to boost its prices a whopping 18 percent come Jan. 1. The price increase is massive compared to previous rate increases, and the Water Authority’s biggest customer, the city of San Diego, is pretty ticked off. For the last five years, water rates rose between 5 and 10 percent per year. The last time San Diego passed a higher price spike was 2010 at 20 percent.

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San Diego to Spend up to $100 Million for Dam Safety Consultant Over Next 10 Years

/in , /by /CBS 8

In recent years, the city of San Diego has released more than 11 billion gallons of freshwater from city-owned reservoirs into the ocean.

It has been done because many of the dams holding the water in are failing and have been placed on water restrictions to prevent a breach.

Now, the city of San Diego is looking to hire an outside consultant to manage its dam safety program for the next ten years at a price of up to $100 million.

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The Water War Between the US and Mexico

/in , /by /The Week USby Devika Rao

The U.S. and Mexico are experiencing another border dispute, and this one is about water. The conflict stems from an 80-year-old treaty where the countries agreed to share water from the Colorado River and the Rio Grande. However, because water is in more demand but scarcer than ever, sharing has not been going to plan.

The U.S. and Mexico signed a treaty in 1944 stipulating that Mexico send 1.75 million acre-feet of water to the U.S. every five years from the Rio Grande, and the U.S. send 1.5 million acre-feet of water to Mexico from the Colorado River each year. But water levels are lower than ever, and Mexico has “sent only about 30% of its expected deliveries, the lowest amount at this point of any four- or five-year cycles since 1992,” said Reuters.

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America’s Drinking Water is Facing Attack, with Links Back to China, Russia and Iran

/in , /by /CNBCby Trevor Laurence Jockims

The city of Wichita, Kansas, recently had an experience that’s become all too common — its water system was hacked. The cyberattack, which targeted water metering, billing and payment processing, followed the targeting of water utilities across the U.S. in recent years.

In going after America’s water, hackers aren’t doing anything special. Despite rising fears of AI use in cyber threats, the go-to criminal way into systems remains preying on human foibles, be it via phishing, social engineering, or a system still running on a default password — “old school” cyberattacks, according to Ryan Witt, vice president of cybersecurity firm Proofpoint.

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Agencies in California are Recycling Wastewater into Drinking Water as Demand Grows

/in , /by /CBS News Chicago

Every day, 130 gallons of treated wastewater, normally draining into the Pacific Ocean, undergo a three-step purification process, including microfiltration, reverse osmosis, and ultraviolet light.

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Drinking Water of Almost a Million Californians Failed to Meet State Requirements

/in , /by /Cal Mattersby Rachel Becker

Almost 400 water systems serving nearly a million Californians don’t meet state requirements for safe and reliable drinking water supplies — and fixing them would cost billions of dollars.

More than two-thirds of these failing water systems serve communities of color, and more than half are in places struggling with poverty and pollution, according to an annual assessment released today by the State Water Resources Control Board.

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