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A Committee Meant to Advise San Diego Officials on Water Rates Keeps Canceling Meetings. Here’s Why.

/in , /by /inewssourceby Crystal Niebla

A committee meant to oversee elected officials on how they charge San Diegans for water and sewer services hasn’t been able to do its job due to a lack of members.

The Independent Rates Oversight Committee, or IROC, has served as the official advisory body to the mayor and City Council on issues related to the Public Utilities Department’s operations since 2007. Yet the committee has met just twice this year — even as residents face rising water rates.

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Groundwater Pumping Drives Rapid Sinking in California, Study Shows

/in , /by /Phys Org

A study published Nov. 19 in Communications Earth and Environment shows land in California’s San Joaquin Valley has been sinking at record-breaking rates over the last two decades as groundwater extraction has outpaced natural recharge.

The researchers found that the average rate of sinking for the entire valley reached nearly an inch per year between 2006 and 2022.

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California’s About to Get its First Big Atmospheric River of the Season. Here’s Where it’s Going

/in , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Grace Toohey

The strongest atmospheric river to hit California in months is expected to dump rain and snow across the northern half of the state this week — also bringing high winds and possible flooding — before eventually making its way south, forecasters say.

“This is going to be the first major storm of the season,” said Dial Hoang, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Monterey. The low pressure system off the Pacific Northwest coast driving this storm will begin rapidly intensifying Tuesday — reaching the threshold of a bomb cyclone — which will drastically increase its moisture and strength.

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U.S. to Invest $125M in Water Recycling Projects to Help Drought-Stricken California, Utah

/in , /by /United Press Internationalby Sheri Walsh

The Department of Interior announced Monday that it will invest $125 million to create new recycled sources of water in California and Utah to help both states mitigate ongoing droughts.

The funding — which comes from President Joe Biden’s Investing in America — will support the Interior Department’s new Large-Scale Water Recycling Program, which was launched in 2023. The program will help five communities recycle water supplies by turning unusable water sources into clean, reliable ones.

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As Monumental California Water Law Turns 10, State Leaders Say There’s a Lot Left to Do

/in , /by /CapRadioby Megan Myscofski

California lawmakers passed significant new rules for managing groundwater a decade ago, during a major drought. Since then, the state has continued to see floods and more severe drought.

That’s given state leaders a lot to think about as they evaluate the decade-old policy, which they covered at a Department of Water Resources conference on Monday.

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Santa Fe Irrigation Water Rate Increase to Start in January

/in , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby Karen Billing

Santa Fe Irrigation District customers will see an increase to their water rates effective Jan. 1, 2025. According to a news release from the district, 100% of this increase is from the San Diego County Water Authority, the region’s wholesale water provider.

Costs for water purchases from the San Diego Water Authority account for about 50% of Santa Fe Irrigation District’s budget expenditures. The water authority’s rates are increasing by approximately 14.9%  this coming year and will be passed on to Santa Fe Irrigation District (SFID) customers.  According to the release, the authority’s increase is due to a variety of factors including inflationary pressures, debt repayment and climate impacts. This is the first increase of what SDCWA anticipates will be a total of an approximately 40% increase between 2025 and 2027, according to the district.

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California Water Recycling Plant Gains $26M to Feed Lake Mead

/in , /by /Las Vegas Review Journalby Alan Halaly

Toilet water in Los Angeles will soon reduce the strain on Lake Mead, thanks in part to a $26.2 million boost that was announced Monday. The recycled water will benefit Nevada and other states and tribes that depend on the lake for drinking water.

Named the Pure Water Southern California project, when it’s active, it will generate enough water to serve nearly 386,000 households, according to a news release from U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev.

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‘Impressive’ Atmospheric River, First of the Season, Takes Aim at California

/in , /by /SFGATEby Katie Dowd

A “rather impressive system” is setting the stage for what could be California’s first atmospheric river storm of the season, the National Weather Service said Sunday. An atmospheric river carries water vapor from the tropics and, when it makes landfall, can bring a vast amount of rain and snow; in Oct. 2021, for instance, San Francisco got 750% more rainfall than an average year after a powerful atmospheric river passed through the region.

Because the movements of atmospheric river storms are difficult to predict, meteorologists are still refining the forecast. As of Sunday morning, “confidence is high” that northern parts of the North Bay “will be impacted by the strong atmospheric river beginning Wednesday, but these impacts could shift slightly southward closer to the SF Bay,” the weather service said.

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US EPA Report Cites Cybersecurity Flaws in Drinking Water Systems, Flags Disruption Risks and Lack of Incident Reporting

/in , /by /Industrial Cyberby Anna Ribeiro

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Office of Inspector General released a report on cybersecurity concerns in drinking water systems. As part of its continued oversight of the EPA’s role as a sector risk management agency, the office revealed that passive assessment of cybersecurity vulnerabilities was conducted on drinking water systems with populations served of 50,000 people or greater. The findings revealed exploitable cybersecurity weaknesses that could disrupt service, cause data loss, or lead to information theft.

Furthermore, while attempting to notify the EPA about the cybersecurity vulnerabilities, the OIG found that the EPA does not have its ‘cybersecurity incident reporting system’ that water and wastewater systems could use to notify the EPA of cybersecurity incidents.

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A Century After Owens Valley Aqueduct Protest, Event Marks Tense Time in L.A. Water History

/in , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Ian James

It’s a chapter of California history filled with subterfuge and conflict: More than a century ago, agents secretly working for Los Angeles posed as farmers and ranchers as they bought land and water rights across the Owens Valley. Their scheme laid the groundwork for the construction of the Los Angeles Aqueduct, which in 1913 began sending the valley’s water to the growing city 233 miles away.

Residents were so enraged in the 1920s that some carried out a series of attacks on the aqueduct, blasting it with dynamite.

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