The next time San Diegans face a proposed water rate increase, the City Council will be getting a second professional opinion about whether the increase is necessary and how large it should be. The change comes after the city approved in late 2015 a series of rate increases totaling nearly 40 percent over four years, including a 6.4 percent hike that will take effect July 1.
The final round of tests in San Diego Unified School District found no schools other than ones that were previously detected had high levels of lead in drinking fountains and faucets, district officials said Thursday. The City of San Diego began testing water at school sites in March, and drinking fountains at Co-Operative Charter School 2 and Emerson-Bandini School were found to have twice the acceptable lead level set by the state. The two Southcrest schools share the same campus.
A legal ruling that San Diego County water officials said would save customers here up to $7 billion has been overturned. A California appellate court on Wednesday partially reversed a 2015 trial court ruling that awarded the San Diego County Water Authority $234 million in alleged overcharges, interest and legal fees to be paid by longtime legal foes at the Los Angeles-based regional agency known as MWD, or the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California.
The San Diego County Water Authority announced Thursday its board had adopted a $1.58 billion budget, which included a 3.7 percent increase in water rates to it’s 24 member agencies. The Water Authority said the rate increase, which it claimed is among the smallest in the past decade, will be passed on to customers at an amount determined by the individual agencies. For example the amount of the increase passed on to Helix Water District customers may be different than those passed on to customers of the city of San Diego.
Rates charged by the San Diego County Water Authority to its 24 member agencies in the region will increase 3.7 percent next year, according to a budget approved Thursday by the authority’s Board of Directors. The SDCWA said the rate hike is the smallest in the past decade. The Water Authority collects imported and locally generated water and sends it to local districts — the city of San Diego and Helix Water District, for example – – which sells the water to customers. Any amount of the increase passed on to customers will be determined by the local districts.
When it comes to water scarcity, California offers researchers a perfect laboratory. The historic drought it endured over the past few years began impacting groundwater levels, leaving farms few options but to drill deeper and deeper for lower-quality water. Enter Helen Dahlke, Assistant Professor in Physical Hydrology at University of California, Davis. She headed up a study on how to tap into storm water and winter melt runoff in a way that would not run afoul of California’s strict water rights or environmental laws.
“Toilet to tap” is the less-than-appealing nickname given to wastewater that is treated so it can be recycled for human use. For about a decade now, Orange County has had a plant that purifies wastewater and pumps it back into the groundwater supply. And as the county expands its operations, it is working to convince the public that the water is indeed clean and safe to drink. On a scorching first day of summer, the Orange County Water District set up a stand in Hollywood to give away free ice-cold bottled water.
California is hell-bent on draining the Sierra by taking water from one region to meet the environmental needs of another. Though essential to the survival of the Sacramento/San Joaquin Delta, the Sierra Nevada watershed is rarely recognized for its natural resources and significance. Environmental groups want more water for fish in the Delta and are willing to sacrifice the quality of life of Sierra communities with permanent and forced water rationing. It is about extracting resources from the Sierra to satisfy downstream interests – first gold, then timber and now water.
Re “California Legislature votes to keep dam-safety plans secret” (sacbee.com, June 15): There was nothing secret about the new dam safety legislation. Far from slipping the bill into the public domain as suggested, the language was posted on March 8, shared with Republican and Democratic staff in the Senate and the Assembly on March 10, and raised in budget subcommittee hearings on March 16 and 22. The Bee misinterpreted the intent of the legislation. It improves public safety by requiring all dam owners to create emergency action plans. It clarifies which information in those plans should not be disclosed, such as home phone numbers.
The heat wave hitting Southern California this week is one for the record books. Temperatures topped 100 in the valleys and 120 in the low desert. Death Valley hit 127 — seven degrees shy of the hottest temperature ever recorded on the planet. The National Weather Service said temperatures in some low desert locations were “among the highest ever recorded.” The temperature hit 124 degrees on Tuesday in Ocotillo Wells — the highest reading ever recorded in San Diego County, according to the National Weather Service. Forecasters said the reading was two degrees above the previous high of 122, which was recorded in Borrego Springs on June 20, 2016.
