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D1 Candidates Split on the County’s Role in Addressing the Border Sewage Crisis

/in , /by /Voice of San Diego by Maya Srikrishnan

Though the flow of millions of gallons of sewage from Tijuana into San Diego has been happening for decades, local officials have been mounting pressure to address the issue over the last year.

Some of the candidates vying to represent District 1 on the San Diego County Board of Supervisors, which encompasses the areas most acutely impacted by the sewage flows – including Imperial Beach, parts of San Ysidro and near the Tijuana River Valley – think the county should play a larger role in responding to the crisis. Others told VOSD they’d mostly continue the county’s current approach.

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San Diego Unified to Consider New Drinking Water Plan Proposal

/in , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribune by Andrea Lopez-Villafana

School board members of the San Diego Unified School District will consider a proposal Tuesday to install filtered water outlets in schools and update standards for lead in drinking water.

The district staff’s recommendation is for San Diego Unified to remove existing drinking fountains and install approximately 2,000 drinking hydration stations district-wide, according to agenda documents.

The proposal also includes changing the district’s drinking water policy so that all drinking outlets “reduce lead in water content to below 1 ppb,” or parts per billion.

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San Diego Approved $15M for Golf Course Renovations, Including Torrey Pines

/in , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribune by David Garrick

San Diego approved a $15 million contract Monday for upgrades and renovations to the city’s three municipal golf courses, including preparations at Torrey Pines to host next year’s U.S. Open.

The City Council unanimously approved the joint contract with four separate companies that will each perform parts of the work. Individual projects are expected to cost between $250,000 and $2.5 million each.

The city’s municipal courses include the north and south courses at Torrey Pines, 18-hole and nine-hole courses at Balboa Municipal, and the lighted Mission Bay executive golf course.

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California’s Snowpack Shrivels, Raising Fears of Future Wildfires

/in , , /by /Discover Magazineby Tom Yulsman

What a difference a year makes.

As the comparison of satellite images above shows, last year at this time California’s Sierra Nevada range was buried in snow. And even as recently as January of this year, snowpack was looking pretty good.

But since then, the jet stream has ferried storms north of California, causing the snowpack to shrivel — from about 150 percent of average last February down to just a little more than 50 percent now.

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$1.5 Million Grant to Help Oceanside Conserve Water, Monitor Water Use

/in , , /by /Times of San Diego by Debbie L. Skylar

A $1.5 million federal grant from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation will help the city of Oceanside complete its $4.5 million project to replace more than 11,000 water meters to help conserve water and better monitor usage, it was announced Monday.

According to the city’s water utilities department, the upgrades will save 784 acre-feet of water or more than 255 million gallons. It will also reduce Oceanside’s dependence on imported drinking water, 85% of which comes from the Sacramento Bay Delta and the Colorado River, hundreds of miles away.

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Vallecitos Water District HAZMAT Team Ready to Respond

/in , , /by /Water News Network

To protect its employees, members of the public, and the environment from any accidental chemical releases or exposure, the Vallecitos Water District has established its own internal Hazardous Materials Response Team or HAZMAT team.

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Feds Order Anderson Reservoir to be Drained Due to Earthquake Risk

/in , , /by /San Jose Mercury Newsby Paul Rogers

In a dramatic decision that could significantly impact Silicon Valley’s water supply, federal dam regulators have ordered Anderson Reservoir, the largest reservoir in Santa Clara County, to be completely drained starting Oct. 1.

The 240-foot earthen dam, built in 1950 and located east of Highway 101 between Morgan Hill and San Jose, poses too great of a risk of collapse during a major earthquake, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which regulates dams, has concluded.

“It is unacceptable to maintain the reservoir at an elevation higher than necessary when it can be reduced, thereby decreasing the risk to public safety and the large population downstream of Anderson Dam,” wrote David Capka, director of FERC’s Division of Dam Safety and Inspections, in a letter to the Santa Clara Valley Water District on Thursday.

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Rising Temperatures are Taking a Worsening Toll on the Colorado River, Study Finds

/in , , /by /azcentral.by Ian James

Scientists have documented how climate change is sapping the Colorado River, and new research shows the river is so sensitive to warming that it could lose about one-fourth of its flow by 2050 as temperatures continue to climb. Scientists with the U.S. Geological Survey found that the loss of snowpack due to higher temperatures plays a major role in driving the trend of the river’s dwindling flow. They estimated that warmer temperatures were behind about half of the 16% decline in the river’s flow during the stretch of drought years from 2000-2017, a drop that has forced Western states to adopt plans to boost the Colorado’s water-starved reservoirs.

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One Idea, Two Cool Things: Desalinated Water and Renewable Energy

/in , , /by /Orange County Registerby Martin Wisckol

The contraption, reminiscent of Rube Goldberg, would produce two of Southern California’s most precious and essential resources: water and electricity.

The electricity would be renewable. And the drought-proof, desalinated ocean water could prove more environmentally friendly — and cheaper — than the water produced from three other desalters proposed for Southern California.

The idea, developed by Silicon Valley-based Neal Aronson and his Oceanus Power & Water venture, caught the attention of the Santa Margarita Water District. The agency quickly saw the project’s viability to fill a void.

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To Bridge the Cultures of Mexico’s Border Region and a Neglected Colorado Neighborhood, Just Add Water

/in , , /by /Colorado Sun (Denver, Colo.)by Sharon Udasin

San Luis Rio Colorado, Mexico — Under the red girders of a nondescript toll bridge, waves gently lapped coarse sands in a gritty corner of this northwestern Mexican border city.

“There is usually no water and vegetation, and the ground looks like this,” local conservationist Alejandra Calvo-Fonesca said, gesturing toward the dusty shoreline of the Colorado River.

For a few months this winter, residents welcomed an unexpected surge of water in the river – a phenomenon they had not experienced since the spring 2014 “pulse flow,” when the United States released 107,000 acre-feet of water into the Colorado River Delta over a two-month period. That seminal event brought revelers in droves, eager to celebrate the revival of a historic waterway that is not only the city’s namesake, but a source of pride for its people.

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