March Rainfall Wasn’t A Miracle, But It Helped
At the start of March, things were looking bleak for California’s rain and snow totals after a pathetic January and one of the driest Februaries on record.
You are now in Media Coverage San Diego County category.
More Rain Drenching San Diego County But Local Reservoirs Still Parched
The San Diego region is being drenched by a rare spring storm system, but all that moisture isn’t adding much to the region’s supply of drinking water.
The snow was falling in the San Diego county mountains on Wednesday, pretty heavily in some places.
That comes courtesy of a slow-moving cold storm system coming into the region from the north.
The region’s National Weather Service office called this prolonged six-week run of rain in March and April, pretty rare for the region.
Newsom Accomplishes Rare Feat: A Water Plan No One Likes
In the century-long “us-versus-them” mentality of California water, a plan released by Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Department of Water Resources last week achieved something perhaps never accomplished before in the Golden State’s water industry. It incited universal scorn. First, as is always the case, some recent history on California’s water infrastructure. Much of California’s surface water – that is, water captured from rainfall, stored in dams and reservoirs, and transported via canals and aqueducts – is delivered via two massive projects: the Central Valley Project, operated by the U.S. Department of Interior’s Bureau of Reclamation, and the State Water Project, operated by the State of California’s Department of Water Resources.
Democrats, Nonprofits Urge Congress to Help Keep Water Flowing
Republican and Democratic congressional leaders were urged Tuesday to include at least $12.5 billion in stimulus funds to help people struggling to pay their water and sewer bills.
Congress is preparing another stimulus package that will include billions of dollars to improve the nation’s aging water and sewer infrastructure. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi already has indicated her support for legislation to help families who can’t afford to pay their water and sewer bills.
House Democrats and a coalition of environmental, social justice, labor and religious groups wrote separate letters to congressional leaders seeking assistance for local water and wastewater utilities that are losing revenue from suspending water and sewer shutoffs and forgiving water and sewer debts.
“Handwashing is our first line of defense against the spread of COVID-19,” the deadly pandemic spread by coronavirus, Rep. Brenda L. Lawrence (D-Mich.) wrote in a letter on behalf of 80 Democrats.
Judge Urged to Close Gates on Federal Water Grab in California Delta
Taking advantage of recently approved rules, the federal government is quickly following through on President Donald Trump’s promise to quiet environmentalists and “open up the water” to California farmers.
In Memoriam: William R. Gianelli, former director of California Department of Water Resources
William R. Gianelli, the Water Education Foundation’s second president and a leading figure in California water during construction of the State Water Project, died March 30, 2020, in Monterey County. He was 101.
Mr. Gianelli was president of the Foundation from 1985-1989 and made a major financial donation that helped the Foundation create an educational program for young professionals from diverse backgrounds, which was named the William R. “Bill” Gianelli Water Leaders Class in his honor. The year-long program began in 1997 and now includes more than 400 graduates.
To Study a Problem That’s Everywhere, They’re Getting Creative
Dimitri Deheyn’s lab has become a hub of novel research on the microfibers found in our waterways and even the air we breathe.
Three years ago, Dimitri Deheyn noticed intensely blue stringy shapes as he examined jellyfish samples through a microscope in his marine biology lab at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego.
Community Thanks Desalination Plant Workers For Sacrifice
Expressions of gratitude and support have poured in from a grateful community to the ten volunteers sheltering in place at the Claude “Bud” Lewis Carlsbad Desalination Plant in San Diego County. As people learned about their effort to maintain plant operations and keep the water flowing during the COVID-19 pandemic, residents responded by expressing their heartful thanks through messages, photos and artwork.
“The Desal Plant employees were overwhelmed with the community support they have received,” said Jessica Jones, Poseidon Water director of communications. “They read and enjoyed every message, photo, and drawing. The support was just the boost in morale that they needed to finish out their 21-days onsite.”
California Gets Widespread Rain, Snow from Spring Storm
Snow and rain fell Monday on California as spring delivered the kind of stormy weather that was missing most of the winter.
Utility Workers, the Forgotten Heroes of this Pandemic
We’re grateful for nurses, doctors, physician assistants, respiratory therapists and so many others in the medical field. We’re also grateful for people who work in grocery stores, the restaurants delivering and offering curbside food, and all the delivery workers bringing packages to those of us self-quarantining or social distancing at home. When sending up thanks for all these people, many of us forget another critical job that must go on during the COVID-19 pandemic: utility workers who keep our water clean and flowing and our lights — and laptops — on.
How utility workers are doing their jobs in a much different world
Austin Energy is one utility that agreed to speak with 3p. We reached out to the company to find out what it had instituted in the face of COVID-19. The utility activated an Incident Command System at the beginning of March and formed a “Pandemic Planning Team” that meets virtually every day. Almost 70 percent of AE’s staff are teleworking and the rest, including line workers and some call center staff, have to report to job sites as essential personnel. Those essential workers have a daily temperature screening, observe social distancing where possible, and sanitize equipment regularly. Fortunately for these workers, so far Austin is not a hot spot.
The same cannot be said for New York City, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S. Utility workers there face a starker reality. As of publication, Con Edison, the utility serving the city, has 170 confirmed cases and three deaths with about half of its personnel working remotely. Likewise, throughout the state, utilities are feeling the pressure.
For example, the New York Independent System Operator (NYISO), the grid operator for New York state, has some essential staff living at control centers outside Albany in response to the shelter-in-place guidance at operation hubs from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Likewise, 200 National Grid personnel are living on-site and will be replaced by a second set of 200 after a month, continuing to cycle as long as necessary.
Water utilities face the same hurdles, as well as additional challenges. There are a lot more water utilities across the country than electric utilities, and many of them are very small, some with staff in the single digits. Further, some utilities have to deal with keeping water systems going when people are flushing disinfecting wipes down the toilet, clogging up sewer lines. As with the case of the power generation sector, utility workers who staff water systems across the U.S. are also sheltering in place to ensure continued, reliable service.
