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San Diego’s Water District Divorce is on the Nov. 7 Ballot. Here’s What to Know

/in , /by /FOX 5 San Diego by Danielle Dawson Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

North County residents in the Fallbrook Public Utilities and Rainbow Municipal Water districts will soon vote on the controversial separation of the two utility agencies from the San Diego County Water Authority.

Registered voters in the rural communities will be able to cast a ballot to approve the long-planned detachment from the region’s biggest water seller in a special election on Nov. 7.

It will be one of three happening across the county next week, including the elections to fill vacant seats on the San Diego County Board of Supervisors and in Chula Vista.

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Here’s How Arizona Plans to Make Wastewater Into Purified Water

/in , , /by /12 Newsby Haley Williams

As Arizona faces historical water consumption and continued drought, being able to treat wastewater to be reused has become an attractive option to maintain water security.

Thursday, the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) released proposed plans on how to safely turn wastewater into reliable, purified water.

The plan introduces the Advanced Water Purification (AWP) Program, which ADEQ hopes will allow stakeholders and the public to better understand and establish clear communication throughout the process.

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Water Recycling Plant Renamed for Rep. Grace Napolitano, Longtime San Gabriel Valley Congresswoman

/in , , /by /San Gabriel Valley Tribune by City News Service

Hailing her as a champion for the environment and water recycling, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California on Thursday, Nov. 11, renamed the Pure Water Southern California demonstration plant after Rep. Grace Napolitano.

Napolitano, D-El Monte, who is retiring at the end of her term, was on hand for the dedication ceremony in Carson Thursday morning. The plant was officially renamed the Grace F. Napolitano Pure Water Southern California Innovation Center “for her unwavering dedication to water sustainability and reliability for all of Southern California,” according to a statement.

“What can be universally said about Congresswoman Napolitano is that she is the ultimate connector of people and creator of solutions,” MWD Board Chair Adán Ortega Jr. said. “Imagine her the needle and us the thread. She has banded us together to address our challenges — to clean up uranium tailings in Moab, Utah; to expand water recycling across the state; to increase water conservation in homes; and to develop water career training programs, ensuring we have the future workforce we need. This center for innovation in the science of water recycling can only have one name, and it is in honor of Congresswoman Grace Napolitano.”

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Relief for South Bay Beaches Could Be on the Horizon

/in , /by /Voice of San Diegoby MacKenzie Elmer

Water quality data shows bacteria levels in the ocean along South Bay beaches have been hundreds of times over what’s considered safe for human health this past week. The culprit, per usual, is sewage flowing from Mexico into the Tijuana River which empties into the Pacific Ocean just south of San Diego’s southernmost cities. But the people who manage wastewater infrastructure in the U.S.-Mexico border say respite is nigh.

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MPWMD Prevails in Lawsuit Against LAFCO

/in , /by /Monterey County Weeklyby David Schmalz

In the Monterey Peninsula Water Management District’s pursuit of buying out California American Water’s system on the Monterey Peninsula, a small but notable victory was meted out Oct. 25 with a ruling from Monterey County Superior Court Judge Thomas Wills.

The ruling came out of a lawsuit the district filed against the Local Agency Formation Commission of Monterey County in April 2022, centered around a decision LAFCO’s board made in December 2021 in which the board voted 5-2 to deny granting the district the “latent powers” to be a retail water provider.

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Snowpack at 114% After Weekend Storms Hit Rockies; Will We See a Repeat of Wet Winter?

/in , , /by /8 News Nowby Greg Haas

It’s still more than seven weeks before the official start of winter (Dec. 21), but weekend storms in Colorado’s high country are reason enough to look in on snowpack levels that will eventually provide the water that flows to Lake Mead.

A month into the 2023 “water year,” snowpack levels are slightly above normal in the Upper Colorado River Basin: 114% as of Nov. 1, according to data on the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s website. The water year runs from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30 each year.

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How Snowfall Will Change Lake Mead’s Water Levels

/in , , /by /Newsweek by Anna Skinner

An El Niño winter snowfall map from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) predicted more good news for Lake Mead.

After years of drought the lake, located in Nevada and Arizona, reached drastically low levels in the summer of 2022. However, water levels have since started to recover because of above-average precipitation and snowpack that melted throughout this year. As of Wednesday afternoon, its levels were at 1,065 feet, 20 feet higher than this time last year.

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Troubled Waters: Colorado River Crisis – Into the Wild West

/in , , /by /KESQby Angela Chen

In the sun-split desert of the Coachella Valley, life here is only possible with water from elsewhere. The water that grows our food, the water we drink and the water we exist around come from the special aquifers below the valley and the Colorado River.

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How Imperial Valley Spends San Diego’s Cash for Water

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

I traveled to Imperial County last month to see what this desert farming community built with the cash San Diegans pay for some of its water.

The latest thing is a small lake, eight times the length of an Olympic lap pool, built into the harsh, flat landscape. The hot wind whipped at the new reservoir’s surface so hard, waves of it almost breached the bare dirt rims of its chamber.

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A Tangle of Rules to Protect America’s Water Is Falling Short

/in , , /by /The New York Times by Dionne Searcey and Delger Erdenesanaa

America’s stewardship of one of its most precious resources, groundwater, relies on a patchwork of state and local rules so lax and outdated that in many places oversight is all but nonexistent, a New York Times analysis has found.

The majority of states don’t know how many wells they have, the analysis revealed. Many have incomplete records of older wells, including some that pump large volumes of water, and many states don’t register the millions of household wells that dot the country.

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