The Claude “Bud” Lewis Carlsbad Desalination Plant has completed a $286 million upgrade to its seawater intake and discharge system, a state-mandated project designed to protect marine life while maintaining the facility’s water production capacity, the San Diego County Water Authority announced Tuesday, Oct. 28.
The work was finished on schedule and $29 million under budget, according to a Water Authority news release.
Americans in vulnerable communities across the country are at risk of or already experiencing a water crisis marked by limited access to safe drinking water and clean lakes and streams. Pollution, aging infrastructure and underinvestment have left many communities vulnerable to long-term illness and a diminished quality of life.
Approximately 2.2 million Americans live in homes without running water or basic plumbing, according to DigDeep, a human rights non-profit organization. Black and Latino households are twice as likely to live without basic plumbing as White households.
The San Joaquin River continues to sit at the center of California’s most complex water disputes, and Los Banos remains one of the communities most directly affected. As state and regional leaders debate over mining, water storage, flooding, fish habitats, and groundwater management, the outcomes will shape how water moves through the Central Valley for generations, and how much of it reaches local communities like Los Banos.
At the western edge of the river system, just north of Los Banos, the B.F. Sisk Dam and San Luis Reservoir play a key role in storing and distributing water from Northern California to the rest of the state. Expansion of the reservoir, now underway, will increase capacity but has raised questions about who benefits most. Local observers note that while Silicon Valley and coastal regions may receive much of the additional water, Los Banos continues to serve as the logistical and environmental gateway where the reservoir, aqueduct, and wildlife refuges intersect.
In September, the San Diego City Council gave the mayor a month to find ratepayers savings on water rates. Tuesday’s the councilmembers’ second attempt to pass a 63 percent water and 31 percent wastewater increase over four years.
Nothing has changed in the proposal.
A sharply divided and visibly frustrated San Diego City Council voted 5-4 Tuesday to raise water rates 31% over the next two years and increase sewer rates 31% over the next four years.
The council did not soften any of the proposed rate increases, which have been declared necessary by two outside consultants, city staff and the city’s independent budget analyst.
A Northern California city just launched operations on a technology that could change the future of drought resilience in the region and bring clean drinking water to millions.
The city of Antioch, located in the Bay Area, has launched a $116 million desalination plant that will convert brackish water from the San Joaquin River into fresh, drinkable water, according to the State Water Resources Control Board. Once operational, the facility will produce up to 6 million gallons of clean water per day, enough to cover about 40% of the city’s drinking supply.
The San Diego City Council will again consider a steep increase of water and wastewater rates Tuesday, following a decision last month to punt the discussion in hopes of friendlier numbers.
In city documents ahead of Tuesday’s meeting, those changes did not appear to come about. The proposal before the council is to increase water rates by 63% through 2029 and wastewater rates by 31% in the same period.
Hot conditions and Santa Ana winds will hit Southern California this week, beginning the fall wildfire season in earnest as the region continues to recover from January’s devastating firestorms.
Though no red flag warnings have yet been issued, both the Santa Clarita and San Fernando Valley foothills will have elevated fire risks once the winds arrive, according to National Weather Service meteorologist Rose Schoenfeld.
The Delta Conveyance Project continues to make progress with two key milestones to push the project forward — a certification of consistency submitted to the Delta Stewardship Council and a state appellate court decision allowing pre-construction geotechnical work to continue.
Governor Gavin Newsom has announced two recent key victories to advance the Delta Conveyance Project — a critical infrastructure project to safeguard California’s water supplies amid a hotter, drier future.
San Diego County Water Authority officials expect wholesale water rates to soar by as much as 150% over the next decade, driven in part by the agency’s struggles to sell some of its supply — struggles it expects to get worse because of San Diego’s billion-dollar Pure Water project.
A grim reality of high water costs might persist for residents and businesses in much of the region if the authority doesn’t find new buyers for its water, according to a draft of the water authority’s long-term financial plan presented to water officials on Thursday.
