A groundwater agency on the western fringes of Kern County has taken the unprecedented step of banning all pumping from wells along the California Aqueduct for a 30-mile stretch.
The move is mainly designed to protect the vital artery that moves hundreds of millions of gallons of water a day from northern to southern California and is threatened by sinking land that could crimp its ability to function.
A large reservoir in Pacific Palisades that is part of the Los Angeles water supply system was out of commission when a ferocious wildfire destroyed thousands of homes and other structures nearby, the Los Angeles Times found.
Officials said that the Santa Ynez Reservoir had been closed since about February for repairs to its cover, leaving a 117-million-gallon water storage complex empty in the heart of the Palisades for nearly a year.
President-elect Donald Trump and some social media users and pundits blamed Los Angeles’ deadly fires on California Gov. Gavin Newsom, saying the Democrat’s environmental policies enabled the blazes’ danger and wreckage.
As of Jan. 12, authorities counted at least 16 people dead, more than 35,000 acres burned and thousands of structures damaged or destroyed.
The Ramona Municipal Water District has announced that the community’s water system does not contain lead after an inventory of service lines.
The water district reviewed the service lines to determine the material of those lines and fittings in response to federal regulations aimed at protecting communities from lead exposure, the agency announced Dec. 20.
As crews have fought the fast-spreading fires across the Los Angeles area, they have repeatedly been hampered by low water pressure and fire hydrants that have gone dry. These problems have exposed what experts say are vulnerabilities in city water supply systems not built for wildfires on this scale.
When the call reporting a brush fire in Otay Mesa came out Thursday, fire agencies pounced. Not just San Diego Fire-Rescue, but Chula Vista, National City and Coronado. Officials quickly brought in air resources, hand crews and differing types of fire rigs.
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.
