In 1991, during a lengthy drought, the giant Metropolitan Water District of Southern California ordered huge cuts in supplies to the San Diego County Water Authority, which relied on MWD for 95 percent of its water. The authority resolved back then to steadily and sharply diversify its supplies, and it did with great success.
Neena Kuzmich has been appointed director of engineering for the San Diego County Water Authority – the first woman to lead the Engineering Department since the agency’s formation in 1944. Kuzmich brings more than 25 years of experience as a civil engineer to fill the position vacated by the retirement of Gary Bousquet.
The Fallbrook and Rainbow water districts got the green light to, in effect, move north.
That will impact ratepayers in San Diego County, and it could alter the balance of power in water decisions far beyond.
Like so many contentious developments when it comes to water, this one might not be over for a while.
From climate change to species loss and pollution, humans have etched their impact on the Earth with such strength and permanence since the middle of the 20th century that a special team of scientists says a new geologic epoch began then.
Called the Anthropocene — and derived from the Greek terms for “human” and “new” — this epoch started sometime between 1950 and 1954, according to the scientists. While there is evidence worldwide that captures the impact of burning fossil fuels, detonating nuclear weapons and dumping fertilizers and plastics on land and in waterways, the scientists are proposing a small but deep lake outside of Toronto, Canada — Crawford Lake — to place a historic marker.
A wet and cool start to 2023 helped Southern Nevada consume 25 percent less water from the drought-stricken Colorado River through the first five months of the year.
From January through May, the region’s consumptive use from the river was just under 61,000 acre-feet of water, Warren Turkett, a natural resource analyst for the Colorado River Commission of Nevada, told commissioners Tuesday. That’s down from nearly 82,000 acre-feet of water consumed during the same time period last year, which was near the same amount the valley consumed in 2021 (84,489 acre-feet) and 2020 (80,885 acre-feet).
Lake Mead has risen more than 3 feet over the past month, and nearly 13 feet since Jan. 1.
The lake, which supplies 90% of the water used in the Las Vegas valley, is bucking the trend of the past five years. Lake Mead typically drops beginning around April, following a seasonal pattern.
As snow melts upstream in the Upper Colorado River Basin, water is held back in dams all along the way to prepare for higher consumption during the hot summer months. Water eventually reaches Lake Powell before flowing through the Grand Canyon and into Lake Mead.
Over the past century, the fossil fuel industry has made a habit of letting others clean up their messes. Today, the U.S. is dotted with millions of “orphaned wells,” crevices in the earth that companies once used to extract oil and subsequently abandoned once they were no longer considered profitable. But additional help appears to be on the way: This week, the Biden administration announced it would make nearly $660 million in funds from the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law available to states to plug more of these polluting fissures.
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Rainbow and Fallbrook water districts are free to join a water system in Riverside County, after a split decision by regional policymakers Monday that would slightly lower costs for ratepayers in those districts but may raise water rates in other areas across San Diego County.
The San Diego County Local Agency Formation Commission, or LAFCO, which is responsible for approving and managing changes to local jurisdictions, voted 5-3 to authorize Fallbrook Public Utility District and Rainbow Muncipal Water District to separate from the San Diego Water Authority. They plan to join Eastern Municipal Water District, which serves southern Riverside County, said Jack Bebee general manager for the Fallbrook district.
California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a package of bills Monday aimed at streamlining the construction of solar and wind farms, reservoirs, bridges, railways and other infrastructure projects in the Golden State.
The San Diego County Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO), in a 5-3 vote Monday, approved the request of Fallbrook Public Utility District and Rainbow Municipal Water District to detach from the 24-member San Diego County Water Authority.
