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The San Diego City Council on Tuesday passed a resolution in support of 10 bills wending their way through the state Capitol in Sacramento that their respective sponsors say will help lower utility bills and “hold investor-owned utilities accountable.”

Resolutions do not have the force of law, but Council President Joe LaCava said he introduced the measure because “it is the most powerful way we have at the moment to actually send a signal from San Diego to Sacramento.”

After years of legal battles over water rates, a new deal has promised more stability, efficiency and reliability for San Diego water ratepayers. In June, the San Diego County Water Authority and the Metropolitan Water District announced a settlement to a 15 year legal dispute over fluctuating prices and exchange agreements between the agencies. Water Authority Board Chair Nick Serrano joins our Laura Cavanaugh to dive deeper into this new era of collaboration and to explain why this move is such a game changer for our region.

Lawmakers are poised to give California’s water districts legal cover from lawsuits as they work to meet strict new state standards for a cancer-causing toxic chemical.

It’s called hexavalent chromium, more commonly known as “chromium-6.” Drinking water with trace amounts of the chemical over long periods has been linked to cancer.

John Allen has an addiction, and he readily admits it. He can’t live without cycads. He has planted dozens of varieties of them across his 1-acre hillside property in rural Vista. Allen bought the house back in 2007 and lives there with his partner, Bob. Almost immediately after moving in, he started to redo the landscape.

“I turned off the outside water, killed the grass lawn in front and back, had juniper shrubs, hedges and some ice plants removed, along with dying avocado trees,” he recalled. “The only two plants remaining are Beaucarnea recurvata (ponytail palms).”