Editor’s Note: This feature highlights water utility employees in the San Diego region working during the coronavirus pandemic to ensure a safe, reliable and plentiful water supply. The water industry is among the sectors that are classified as essential. LaMont Foster, Santa Fe Irrigation District Utility Worker I, is the Water Utility Hero of the Week.
Even as a boy, I knew there was something unusual, even other-worldly, about living in the Imperial Valley.
We seemed so isolated, more connected to Mexico than California. In fact the valley’s largest city was Mexicali, just across the border, and we’d often walk across for cheap restaurant food. It was an hours-long, 100-mile automobile drive through treeless, boulder-strewn mountains to San Diego, the nearest California city of any size.
Imperial Irrigation District made the first notable follow-up to its petition to hit the brakes on the Lower Basin Drought Contingency Plan for the Colorado River with an opening brief filed Wednesday.
IID originally filed the petition in Superior Court of Los Angeles County on April 18, 2019. The petition calls on the court to suspend approvals and actions related to the Lower Basin Drought Contingency Plan until such time an appropriate analysis of Metropolitan Water District of Southern California’s commitment to the plan has been completed in accordance with the California Environmental Quality Act.
Mexican officials say there may be relief soon for San Diego South Bay residents living with massive daily sewage flows from Tijuana.
The sewage-tainted flows routinely hit 25 million gallons a day. Some days earlier this year, the flow topped 70 million gallons.
California State Senator Ben Hueso (D-San Diego) convened a half-day meeting at the South Bay International Wastewater Treatment Plant on July 9, 2020 between officials from both sides of the border to discuss the binational efforts that are underway to stem the flow of toxic wastewater in the Tijuana River Valley.
The Imperial Irrigation District Board of Directors approved their annual funding contribution to the Colorado River Board at their July 7 meeting.
The board met in their regular session to approve a $661,250 contribution to the Colorado River Board of California’s 2020-2021 budget to help achieve the mission to protect the Colorado River.
The California Environmental Protection Agency announced nearly $100,000 in grants Friday going toward two San Diego-area projects as part of the agency’s Environmental Justice Small Grants program. The agency gave $50,000 to the Southern California Tribal Chairmen’s Association to identify the watersheds within in the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board’s jurisdiction where Native American cultural uses are occurring and where appropriate water quality standards are needed to ensure vulnerable populations are protected.
The Imperial Irrigation’s financial picture after the first six months was not a rosy one, and the district expects it to get worse as COVID-19 numbers continue to increase in the county.
When IID Assistant General Manager Sergio Quiroz presented the IID Board of Directors Tuesday with the district’s financial update, he pointed out the figures include January through March, before COVID-19 had fully impacted the district.
Strong credit ratings for the San Diego County Water Authority will save water ratepayers across the region $67.4 million on bond sales executed Wednesday in New York — $27 million more than staff forecasted in May. All three major rating agencies – S&P, Moody’s and Fitch – recently affirmed the Water Authority’s positive ratings and stable outlook, creating the opportunity for ratepayers to benefit from lower financing costs for critical water infrastructure.
Editor’s Note: This feature highlights water utility employees in the San Diego region working during the corona virus pandemic to ensure a safe, reliable and plentiful water supply. The water industry is among the sectors that are classified as essential. Carrie Selby, City of Escondido Wastewater Treatment Plant Operator, is the Water Utility Hero of the Week.
