Millions of Californians are set to see significant water rate hikes over the next few years, with prices for essential water supplies jumping by double-digit percentage points. In one large city, cumulative increases could see prices jump about 70% just in the next five years.
More late season rainfall is headed toward San Diego this week, starting with some drizzle before another atmospheric river is expected to bring several days of wet, overcast conditions into the weekend. The first bout of precipitation is anticipated to begin Tuesday into Wednesday as a ribbon of low atmospheric pressure currently over the Pacific Northwest advances towards the region.
Water rates in San Diego are set to rise, and many residents and business owners are voicing their frustrations. On Tuesday, the San Diego City Council voted 6-3 to approve a 5.5% water rate increase, with additional hikes expected in the coming years.
Rain has officially entered the region once again. Coastal communities are not expecting to receive more than an inch of rain through Friday, which might not sound like a lot, but it is when it comes to water conservation.
Both U.S. senators from Arizona joined those from California and Nevada in a plea to end a federal freeze of $4 billion in water management and conservation for the Colorado River Basin and other Western areas in drought.
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.
