Two recent decisions of the California Court of Appeal have increased risk for California’s local governments as to utility fees and fees imposed to fund regulation. A new statute provides a means to reduce that risk somewhat.
Coziahr v. Otay Water District is a class-action challenge to tiered water rates imposed by a district which serves territory along the international border south and east of San Diego.
From delivering potable water to collecting wastewater, nearly 100 high school and college students got an up-close look at opportunities Oct. 10 during Water Career Day at the San Elijo Joint Powers Authority Water Campus in Encinitas, according to a news release.
Engineering students from Mission Hills High School and students from Palomar College’s Water and Wastewater Technology programs toured the campus, stopping at stations staffed by workers from San Elijo JPA, Leucadia Wastewater District and Olivenhain Municipal Water District.
San Diego Gas & Electric customers would pay 2.7% more on their electric bills starting next year while customers with natural gas hookups may pay almost 9% more, according to a proposed decision released Friday afternoon by the California Public Utilities Commission.
It’s not welcome news for SDG&E’s 3.7 million customers saddled with high power bills, but the potential increase is hundreds of millions of dollars lower than what the utility requested.
Hurricanes Helene and Milton devastated swaths of the southeastern US by bringing too much water. Now, communities are struggling with the opposite problem: too little of it.
The North Fork Water Treatment Plant supplies most of the drinking water to Asheville, North Carolina, and some surrounding mountain towns. Built in the 1970s, it was known for its clear water, which flows into the plant from a large reservoir.
American Water Co., hit by hackers early this month, now is being sued by customers seeking damages for the potential theft of identity information. At least two suits in Camden federal court say claims will exceed $5 million, the minimum required for proposed class action litigation.
Each contends American Water was negligent in allowing one or more hackers to enter its computer system. The suits seek to represent “all persons whose PII [personally identifiable information] was compromised” by the hack.
For decades South Bay communities have faced the repercussions of failing sewage and wastewater facilities on both sides of the border.
The Tijuana River sewage crisis in San Diego has something in common with a historic water contamination crisis in Flint, Michigan: a contractor accused in lawsuits of making matters worse.
A weak La Niña is forecast to appear this winter and affect weather patterns across the country, likely bringing drier-than-average conditions in much of the Southwest and wetter-than-average conditions in the Pacific Northwest, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The outlook is uncertain, however, for much of California, where NOAA experts predict there are equal chances of below-average, average or above-average winter precipitation.
The new U.S. Drought Monitor shows growing severe drought in the southeast corner of California. Moderate drought is also expanding in the same region and the northern border near Oregon.
The Drought Severity and Coverage Index also jumped from 82 to 94 in the last month. This index is an experimental product from the U.S. Drought Monitor converting drought levels to a single value.
The Supreme Court heard arguments on Wednesday in a significant environmental case brought by San Francisco — one that some city officials are surprisingly hoping to lose.
San Francisco is suing the Environmental Protection Agency because it argues that current law makes the city responsible for more than its share of water pollution, sparking a legal battle that environmentalists fear the court’s 6-3 conservative majority could use to roll back clean water protections on a national scale.
On Oct. 1, the San Diego County Water Authority announced that the region has plenty of water to meet demands in water year 2025 regardless of the weather, thanks to regional investments in water reliability and consecutive wet winters.
A water year is a 12-month period that hydrologists use to track precipitation over the winter and spring with to understand how much water is available during the hot and dry summer months. Precipitation that falls during a water year indicates how much water will contribute to stream flow and groundwater. Right now, the focus is on the emerging La Niña weather pattern, which typically brings hotter and drier conditions to Southern California.
