San Diego water customers are facing a 5.5% rate hike on May 1 that’s expected to be the first of several large increases during the next few years that could cumulatively raise rates by 70%.
The first in a series of Pacific storms moved into San Diego County on Wednesday and began spreading much-needed rain, before a second wave was expected to follow Thursday night into Friday morning.
A winter storm is expected to arrive in Southern California, with rain in San Diego expected to start as early as Wednesday morning and continuing through early Friday. Local mountain ranges can expect snow to accumulate above about 4,500 feet through early Friday, with a Winter Storm Watch expected to take effect.
This desert city gets less than 9 inches of rain a year and experienced the two hottest years in its recorded history in 2023 and 2024. But El Paso Water started planning decades ago for this hotter, drier climate. Last Thursday, the utility broke ground on its latest project to secure water for the city of 700,000: an advanced water purification facility that will deliver 10 million gallons per day of purified water from the city’s wastewater stream directly into its drinking water supply.
In a case that centered on unusual alliances and unpleasant descriptions of raw sewage being released into San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean during rain storms, the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday handed San Francisco a victory in a long-running legal battle with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Handing down a 5-4 decision, the court narrowed the Clean Water Act, America’s landmark water pollution law, and ruled that the EPA set requirements too broadly in issuing permits for the city’s wastewater treatment plants.
Fourteen California water agencies have appealed to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, urging him not to proceed with planned staff reductions at the Bureau of Reclamation. The agencies argue that terminating 100 employees will not benefit taxpayers. The Bureau of Reclamation, which oversees water infrastructure projects such as Millerton Lake and the Friant Kern Canal, is set to reduce its workforce through terminations and buyouts.
The Trump administration has ordered firings and buyouts at the federal agency that operates water infrastructure in California, potentially jeopardizing the agency’s ability to manage dams and deliver water, according to Central Valley water officials.
In these turbulent times, nearly every issue gets filtered through a political lens, where real solutions are often sidelined in favor of scoring political points. When it comes to managing our state’s water supplies, this dynamic is unfortunately all too common.
We do, however, have essential truths: Water is essential to life, and how we manage this resource is one of the most crucial responsibilities we bear, so we must get this right.
Showers and thunderstorms are expected throughout San Diego County in the middle of the week, with periods of gusty winds, forecasters said Monday.
Measurements taken across the Sierra Nevada show that California’s snowpack, which typically supplies nearly a third of the state’s water supply, now stands at 85% of average for this time of year. The latest state data released Friday also show the amount of snow in the mountains varies dramatically depending on the region.
