Almost 1 million residents from 632 neighborhoods throughout Tijuana and Rosarito will be without water service through the weekend starting Friday.
Jesús García Castro, director of the State Commission of Public Services in Tijuana, says crews need to repair a large leak on one of the main lines that delivers water to the entire region.
To Victoria Hilton, 76, who lives in the Heavenly Oaks Mobile Home Park in the mountain community of Guatay in East San Diego County, the power shutoffs felt like an eternity.
She lost power for two days. She used battery-powered lamps to read at night and bathed in tepid water because her water heater couldn’t operate.
The devastating wildfires that have ravaged Southern California erupted following a stark shift from wet weather to extremely dry weather — a phenomenon scientists describe as “hydroclimate whiplash.”
New research shows these abrupt wet-to-dry and dry-to-wet swings, which can worsen wildfires, flooding and other hazards, are growing more frequent and intense because of human-caused climate change.
As San Diego enters the driest start to the water year since record keeping began in 1860, the San Diego County Water Authority has the reliable water supplies needed by the region for 2025 and beyond.
“We’ve been preparing for over three decades to have reliable water supplies, whether we’re in a drought or whether we have a wet year,” Water Authority Senior Water Resource Specialist Efren Lopez told CBS 8. “We have a lot of emergency storage in case there’s a disruption to our system.”
With coverage from CBS, KPBS and KUSI/Fox 5, the Water Authority has been informing and updating the public at every available opportunity.
The City of San Diego recorded only 0.14 inches of rain since Oct. 1, when typically it would have received between three and four inches.
While the lack of rain negatively impacts San Diego County’s flora and fauna — including increasing fire risk during the Santa Ana windstorms — the San Diego region doesn’t depend on local rainfall to supply the water that powers our economy and sustains our quality of life. Instead, the region uses a combination of desalinated seawater, conserved water from the Colorado River, recycled water, and runoff from the Sierra.
“San Diegans don’t need to worry about any water restrictions or any conservation mandates — we have plenty of water,” Lopez said.
Meanwhile, Northern California has been relatively wet. That means the state’s six major reservoirs are at 121% of their historical average levels at the beginning of 2025, slightly better than the same time last year. Additionally, the statewide snowpack is 115% of its historical average.
Precipitation over the next few months will be key to determining the state’s overall water supply for 2025. Regardless, the San Diego region has sufficient water for the foreseeable future.
There’s a rural area in Arizona with massive groundwater basins underneath the earth. Water should be plentiful there, but wells are running dry. Today on the show, what’s behind the water issues in rural Arizona?
The water system used to fight the Palisades fire in Los Angeles buckled under the demands of what turned out to be the most destructive fire in city history, with some hydrants running dry as they were overstressed without assistance from firefighting aircraft for hours early Wednesday.
San Diego is facing its driest start to the 24-25 water year with a more than three-inch rainfall deficit and there’s no relief in sight.
With only 0.14 inches of rain since Oct. 1, 2024 to date, this will be the driest start ever to San Diego’s water year which runs from the beginning of October through Sept. 30. Rainfall records date back to 1850.
Even in San Diego, it’s typical to get some rain in the winter. Except this year, the San Diego County Water Authority said it’s the third driest start to the rainy season in 150 years.
Hear from Water Authority Senior Water Resources Specialist Efren Lopez about where San Diego’s water supply stands during this very dry start to the 2025 Water Year.
