A $38 million state grant awarded this week will be used to increase rebates to businesses and institutions that replace turf with water-efficient landscaping as a deadline looms to phase out turf at commercial, industrial, municipal and institutional properties.
In addition to the rebate program, the money will also be used to help thousands of low- income households install water-efficient irrigation systems.
What began as a brash legal complaint that millions of ratepayers faced historic damage ended with a fizzle this week as the San Diego County Water Authority voted in closed session to settle a lawsuit filed earlier this year.
The water authority board approved an agreement to end its litigation challenging the plan by the Fallbrook Public Utilities District and Rainbow Municipal Water District to leave the broader agency and join the Eastern Municipal Water District of Riverside County.
As forecasts tease California with rainstorms this week, the state’s reservoirs are already flush with water.
It’s a big departure from a year ago: The state’s major reservoirs — which store water collected mostly from rivers in the northern portion of the state — are in good shape, with levels at 124% of average. In late 2022, bathtub rings of dry earth lined lakes that had collectively dipped to about two-thirds of average — until heavy winter storms in January filled many of them almost to the brim.
The San Diego County Water Authority’s board voted Thursday to drop a lawsuit the water seller filed in August against two of its customer water districts that are trying to leave and the agency that gave them permission to do so.
After a closed-door deliberation, the Water Authority publicly directed its lawyers to enter into a settlement agreement with Rainbow Municipal Water District, Fallbrook Public Utilities District and the Local Agency Formation Commission or LAFCO – the boundary referees that agreed to allow two of the Water Authority’s customers to divorce from their water seller.
Millions of Southern Californians who were required to dramatically reduce their water use last year will have increased access to water in the future under two projects recently announced by the Metropolitan Water District.
Metropolitan—the nation’s largest water wholesaler and sole water provider to the local Las Virgenes and Calleguas municipal water districts—approved a $9.8-million contract for the Sepulveda Feeder Pump Stations Project that will bring additional water from the Colorado River, as well as water stored at Diamond Valley Lake in Riverside County, to the two local districts.
The Elk Grove Water District is putting together a free sign-up event Friday that will provide a leg up for low-income households struggling to pay bills. The event will help residents apply for assistance through the Low Income Household Water Assistance Program (LIHWAP), a federally funded program operated by California Department of Community Services and Development.
Oceanside residents will see a trifecta of utility rate hikes in 2024 under water, sewer and trash fee increases approved unanimously Wednesday by the Oceanside City Council.
Water rates will go up 6 percent on Jan. 1, 2024, and another 6 percent in January 2025. The hike reflects higher rates passed along by the Metropolitan Water District and the San Diego County Water Authority, who import the supply to Oceanside, and higher costs for labor, materials, supplies and utilities.
A Pacific storm that was expected to drench San Diego County late Friday and early Saturday is turning away from the region and won’t deliver rain that’s needed to help reduce the risk of wildfires ahead of Santa Ana winds next week, the National Weather Service said.
Forecasters originally thought the system would drop about 0.70 inches of rain west of Interstate 15 and as much as an inch in the valleys, foothills and mountains to the east.
The binational agency that operates the aging federal wastewater treatment plant at the U.S.-Mexico border said declaring the sewage crisis an emergency to expedite the facility’s expansion may no longer be effective.
But the California Coastal Commission said Wednesday that all steps are needed to remedy the uncontrolled discharge of raw sewage and other pollutants as soon as possible.
A judge’s order signed Tuesday ensures there will be at least some water flowing in the Kern River through Bakersfield in perpetuity. Unless, of course, it’s overturned.
Kern County Superior Court Judge Gregory Pulskamp signed an order that requires 40% of the Kern River’s flow to remain in the river to keep fish populations healthy.
This order is the implementation of an injunction granted by Pulskamp October 30 mandating that some amount of water must flow through the river for fish populations.
