Barrett Reservoir marks its first century of service, playing an important role in the City of San Diego’s water supply system. Barrett is one of nine reservoirs that make up part of the City’s vast water system. Fishing season opens at the reservoir on May 4.
0.02 inches.
Pinch your fingers together and try to imagine 0.02 inches.
That’s how much rain fell at San Diego International Airport in April. 30 days in San Diego and the airport measured 0.02 inches of rainfall.
Neighborhoods across northern San Diego will be disrupted by tunneling and pipeline construction this summer when work kicks into high gear on Pure Water, the largest infrastructure project in city history.
With contracts totaling more than $1 billion recently awarded for eight of the 10 major projects that make up Pure Water’s first phase, city officials say nearly the entire project will be under construction starting in late summer or early fall.
In less than a month, residents in large portions of Southern California will be under unprecedented water restrictions due to a worsening drought that has severely limited water supplies.
The biggest change is the requirement from the Metropolitan Water District that local water suppliers in those areas, from Ventura County to northwestern L.A. County to parts of the Inland Empire, limit outdoor watering to once a week.
Ongoing dry weather in the western U.S. conducive to wildfires burning in New Mexico and Arizona has also helped drop the waters of Lake Powell to a level approaching the minimum needed to operate the Glen Canyon Dam hydroelectric power plant.
“This year the Colorado River Basin has experienced extremely variable conditions with a record high snowpack one month, followed by weeks without snow,” David Palumbo, acting commissioner of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, said in a statement. “This variable hydrology and a warmer, drier west have drastically impacted our operations and we are faced with the urgent need to manage in the moment.”
California walnut grower Tim McCord is at the dry end of the spigot, facing a zero-water allocation from the Central Valley Project, which is supposed to deliver to his local San Benito County Water District.
“I don’t know what I’m going to do,” said McCord.
The farmer is not just concerned about his orchard; he’s also frustrated that he owes substantial water-related taxes to the district, and, if water is eventually delivered, he’ll be charged $309.75 per acre-foot — more than in non-drought years.
With long-term severe drought continuing to take a toll on the Colorado River, the federal government is expected to announce on Monday that it will retain some water in one of the river’s major reservoirs to temporarily stave off what it called increased uncertainty in water and electricity supplies.
The anticipated decision to keep more water in Lake Powell on the Arizona-Utah border, rather than releasing it downstream to the other major reservoir, Lake Mead near Las Vegas, comes as both are at record-low levels after 20 years of drought.
A new estimated cost for the Advanced Water Purification project, a system of recapturing sewage and transforming it to drinkable water for about 500,000 East County residents, escalated to about $850 million, an increase of more than $300 million above the estimate three years ago.
Allen Carlisle, general manager of the Padre Dam Municipal Water District, revealed the number at a public forum held April 24 in Santee, saying the project should begin construction this summer.
In the coming weeks, the City of San Diego will begin emergency repairs on the Lake Hodges Dam at the Hodges Reservoir in Escondido outside of Rancho Santa Fe.
During a recent inspection, the city identified areas in the dam wall that require repair and need be sealed. In order to complete the work, the water level of the reservoir needs to be lowered by about 18 feet from its current level to an elevation of 275 feet.
The repair project is expected to continue for an estimated five months.
Citing California’s worsening drought conditions, Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday made a powerful new push for a controversial $1.4 billion desalination plant on the state’s coastline.
The proposed oceanfront facility in Huntington Beach has been under debate for more than 20 years, and its fate could set a course for other desalination plants on the state’s coast. The California Coastal Commission is scheduled to take a final vote on the project in two weeks.
“We need more tools in the damn tool kit,” Newsom said during a meeting with the Bay Area News Group editorial board when asked about the project. “We are as dumb as we want to be. What more evidence do you need that you need to have more tools in the tool kit than what we’ve experienced? Seven out of the last 10 years have been severe drought.”
