San Diego County and the rest of Southern California are under a new drought emergency announced this week. Local waters officials are encouraging conservation but say our local water supply is stable.
The cost of desalinated water in San Diego is about to dramatically increase, as Poseidon scrambles to meet state environmental regulations for protecting fish and other marine life at its Carlsbad facility. An ongoing overhaul of the Claude “Bud” Lewis plant’s intake system is estimated to cost roughly $274 million, regional water officials announced Thursday.
As California faces the prospect of a fourth consecutive dry year, officials with the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California have declared a regional drought emergency and called on water agencies to immediately reduce their use of all imported supplies.
The decision from MWD’s board came about eight months after officials declared a similar emergency for 7 million people who are dependent on supplies from the State Water Project, a vast network of reservoirs, canals and dams that convey water from Northern California. Residents reliant on California’s other major supply — the Colorado River — had not been included in that emergency declaration.
San Diego County supervisors voted 4-0 Wednesday in favor of a multi-year program to increase the use of native plants in the region.
The program was developed by the San Diego Regional Biodiversity Working Group, which formed via a proposal from Supervisors Nathan Fletcher and Terra Lawson-Remer.
Lawson-Remer said that more native plants aren’t just good for environment, they also benefit the regional economy in the form of more landscaping and related service jobs. She said the program will provide incentives to “residents, landscapers and businesses to protect the biodiversity that makes our region so beautiful and unique, as well as require native plants be used in many county projects.”
As Western water managers are gathering in Las Vegas this week, a long-sought deal to curtail water use along the cratering Colorado River still seems a ways off. Nearly six months have passed since Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Camille Touton first asked the Western states to come up with a plan to cut back on water use from the river next year by as much as 30 percent, but a cohesive proposal from the seven states that pull from the Colorado that supplies water to some 40 million people has yet to emerge.
Brown and Caldwell, an engineering and construction services firm, announced that it has been hired by the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California to design a sectional replacement of a critical Southern California water supply pipeline, the Rialto Pipeline. The Rialto Pipeline, constructed in 1972, is approximately 30 miles long with a diameter ranging from 96 inches to 144 inches.
States in the Upper Colorado River Basin on Wednesday launched a $125 million program aimed at reducing reliance on the shirking waterway, although it remains to be seen how much water could actually be conserved. The Upper Colorado River Commission, which represents Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming, released details on its Upper Basin System Conservation Pilot Program, which will pay users with rights to the river’s waters to temporarily forego their allocations.
Yuma County continues to fight for its water rights. Joining La Paz and Mohave counties in a lawsuit against the Bureau of Reclamation, uniting western Arizona. Earlier, the Yuma County Supervisors voted unanimously in November to combine resources. Joining a legal challenge over a transfer of 2,000 acre-feet of water from La Paz County to Queen Creek in central Arizona. The lawsuit’s overall goal is to prevent future transfers of Colorado River water to Queen Creek.
It seems like everything is going up in price these days, especially bills, and for residents in Fremont, Newark and Union City, water is no exception. Households in these areas could start paying 4% more for the commodity beginning next March, and another 4% on top of that in March 2024. The increases are being proposed by the Alameda County Water District, which will hold a public hearing on the rate hikes in February.
Technology has allowed scientists to observe water from space for the past several decades. A new satellite called Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) is scheduled to launch early Thursday morning, sending our ability to track and predict our planet’s water supply to new heights.
