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Water Bills Will Spike for 140,000 San Jose Residents Starting July 1

/in , , /by /The Mercury Newsby Gabriel Greschler

Water bills will be rising for nearly a tenth of San Jose’s residents starting July 1 after San Jose councilmembers approved the rate hike on Tuesday — one of the largest increases in the region this year.

Customers under the city-run San Jose Municipal Water System (SJMWS) will see a 14% rise in their bills — about $16 extra per month. SJMWS serves roughly 140,000 residents in North San Jose, Alviso, Evergreen, Edenvale and Coyote Valley.

Officials blame the rising costs on increased prices from third-party water providers, supply and usage issues related to drought conditions and future infrastructure projects. In total, SJMWS expects to receive $8.9 million from the increase.

Councilmembers voted 9-2 for the price increase, with Councilmembers Domingo Candelas and Bien Doan voting against it.

Water usage is expected to remain the same this coming year — and costs are expected to rise in the years ahead. By 2024, water bills could go up by 15%, 11.5% in 2025 and 10% for the next seven years after that.

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One of California’s Poorest Counties Could Be Key To Future of Clean Energy

/in , , /by /Courthouse News Serviceby Sam Ribakoff

Sonia Herbert of Bombay Beach wants people to know that California’s Salton Sea isn’t all dystopian sunbaked abandoned homes, poverty, ominous toxic dust and decaying nostalgia. It’s also a place where people live and find beauty around the mirage-like lake in the desert.

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Colorado River Water Cutbacks Could Hit Alfalfa Yields, Livestock Producers

/in , , /by /AgriPulseby Philip Brasher and Jana Rose Schleis
Dairy operations and cattle producers in the Southwest are bracing for potentially higher feed bills, depending on how farmers respond to a historic agreement among California, Nevada and Arizona that’s intended to slash agricultural water usage and preserve hydropower generation.
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Las Vegas Needs to Save Water. It Won’t Find it in Lawns

/in , , /by /ProPublicaby Nat Lash, Mark Olalde and Ash Ngu

As millions of newcomers have flocked to the Las Vegas Valley over the past 50 years, every level of government in the nation’s driest state has worked to ensure that water shortages don’t stop the growth.

Since 1999, southern Nevada has ripped out thousands of acres of turf from lawns, sports fields and roadway medians under the West’s most ambitious grass-removal program. These efforts helped halve the amount of water each resident consumed and freed up enough for Clark County to add nearly 1 million people.

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Fallbrook, Rainbow Water ‘Divorce’ Decision Delayed Until August

/in , /by /KPBSby Alexander Nguyen Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

A local government body on Monday delayed the decision on whether two North County water districts can leave the San Diego County Water Authority to buy cheaper water elsewhere.

Fallbrook Public Utility District and Rainbow Municipal Water District want a divorce from the San Diego County Water Authority (SDCWA) because they say the water rate is too high. They want to move to the Eastern Municipal Water District in Riverside for its cheaper water. It’s a process called detachment.

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Los Angeles Steps Into San Diego’s Water Divorce

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

In their efforts to break away from the San Diego County Water Authority, two small farming communities have run into a powerful and unexpected foe: The Los Angeles-based Metropolitan Water District of Southern California.

At least, they ran into the man who chairs Metropolitan’s board: Adán Ortega Jr., a water policy consultant and former lobbyist elected in October to lead at Met.

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Broken Record: Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide Levels Jump Again

/in , , /by /Water News Networkby Robert Monroe Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

Carbon dioxide levels measured at NOAA’s Mauna Loa Atmospheric Baseline Observatory peaked at 424 parts per million (ppm) in May, continuing a steady climb further into territory not seen for millions of years, scientists from NOAA and Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego announced today, June 5, 2023.

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North County Communities Wait for Permission to Part Ways with County Water Authority

/in , , /by /FOX 5 by Jason Sloss Quoted: San Diego County Water Authority

A county commission will meet again in August to decide whether to allow two North County communities to switch water providers.

“We cannot afford to buy items, such as water, at the super-high rates for our farm to be sustainable,” said Kendall Farms CEO Jason Kendall, during Monday’s meeting at the County Administration Center.

The San Diego County Local Agency Formation Commission is considering a proposal to allow the Fallbrook Public Utility District and the Rainbow Municipal Water District to switch water service to Eastern Municipal Water District in Riverside County and cut ties with the San Diego County Water Authority.

 

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Lake Mead Water Level Rises – But Shortages Are Still on the Way

/in , , /by /Newsweekby Robyn White

Lake Mead’s water levels have risen slightly as the record snowpack in the southwest continues to melt.

As of June 5, the Colorado River reservoir in Nevada stood at 1,054.42 feet.

The lake has risen sharply since the end of April when the Bureau of Reclamation released a vast amount of water from Lake Powell. The water ran through the Grand Canyon and eventually into Lake Mead, replenishing sandbars and beaches.

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Opinion: Colorado River Deal Forever Changes the Price of Water in the West

/in , , /by /CalMattersby Grayson Zulauf

For the first time in this drought-stricken century, a new price for water in the West has been set – and it’s 25 times higher than what farmers have paid for the last 75 years.

Arizona, Nevada and California recently agreed to reduce their water consumption from the Colorado River by 13% through 2026. The federal government will pay their irrigation districts, Native American tribes and cities $521 for each acre-foot of water they don’t use.

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