The Metropolitan Water District decided Monday that, after about a year of closed-door negotiations, it would go public with an offer to settle its long legal battle with the San Diego County Water Authority.
Both sides have spent about $20 million each fighting for years about how much the San Diego agency should have to pay Metropolitan to deliver water San Diego bought from Imperial County farmers in a 2003 deal.
The U.S. government’s oceans and waterways agency will provide $30 million to improve coastal resilience, officials said, aiming to reduce the impacts of worsening storms, flooding and rising seas in nearly half of U.S. states.
Grants through the program are designed to restore or expand coastal wetlands, dunes, reefs, mangroves and barrier islands that are key to coastal protection, said the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in an announcement.
Coastlines worldwide are being damaged or threatened by more extreme and destructive weather, higher temperatures and rising seas that scientists attribute to the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
Dangerous fire weather is returning to broad swaths of Northern California at the same time as Southern California is expecting its first winter storm of the season to produce widespread rain.
And the two events are related.
Red flag warnings sounding the alarm for fire weather for parts of the Bay Area and northern Sacramento Valley will go into effect from 4 a.m. Wednesday through 7 a.m. Thursday for strong, dry winds coming from the north and northeast. Velocities of 20 to 30 mph are expected, with gusts as high as 45 mph and perhaps in excess of 60 mph near such locations as Mt. St. Helena and Mt. Diablo.
It’s been warmer than normal. It’s been drier than normal. For most of the region, it hasn’t rained more than a sprinkle or a brief thunderstorm here or there in about six months.
Northern California weather has done a relatively quick 180 in 2019. Heavy rain coming via “atmospheric river” systems drenched the Sacramento Valley, created some flood concerns and filled reservoirs to healthy levels this January through March.
But what spring 2019 had plenty of, fall 2019 has had nearly zilch.
When torrential rains flooded downtown Dubai earlier this month, the United Arab Emirates’ zealous embrace of cloud seeding was blamed by some.
So if cloud seeding can cause a desert to flood, why can’t Australia use the technology to break the drought?
The answer is surprisingly simple. For cloud seeding to produce rain you need moisture to begin with. And cloud. Australia at present is in short supply of both, and even if more clouds begin to make an appearance in the Australian sky, chances are they will not be the right type.
Expecting new and more challenging negotiations to face the Imperial Irrigation District, its board Monday afternoon adopted a new set of parameters that define the scope of the district’s role in the coordinated operations of the river.
The resolution will establish Colorado River parameters as IID looks ahead to 2026 when new negotiations will define its role.
The first rain storm of the season is expected to move into the region Tuesday, bringing significant rainfall throughout San Diego County along with the possibility of snow in the mountains.
A low pressure system to the south will make its way north and meet a colder, low pressure system that is making its way down the coast, National Weather Service meteorologist Miguel Miller said.
These conditions are expected to produce rain starting Tuesday evening and continuing through Thursday night, with the heaviest rainfall expected on Wednesday, Miller said.
The Coachella Valley Water District on Monday approved taking on outside financing for what is believed to be the first time in its 101-year history for a $40 million pipeline to bring more Colorado River water to the region’s farmers, freeing up valuable groundwater for other uses.
A majority of the board voted Monday at a special meeting to give staff the go-ahead to pursue short-term, low-interest “bridge” financing for the Oasis pipeline project, by drawing on a $75 million line of credit CVWD obtained with Bank of the West on July 1.
A two-day conference in San Diego and Tijuana seeks to forge regional solutions for cross-border water issues by breaking down academic, political and administrative boundaries.
The theme of RE:BORDER 2019 is “The Water We Share.” RE:BORDER is a new initiative from San Diego State University President Adela de la Torre that each year will examine a significant transborder issue of the California-Baja California border region in partnership with our Mexican university and community collaborators.
The nearest water station for Darlene Yazzie is nine miles away at the Dennehotso Chapter House — or community center — in the Four Corners region of the Navajo Nation. On Tuesday, she counted her dimes and nickels to pay for water. It costs $1.10 plus gas money to fill up two 50-gallon barrels and she’s just been told the price is going up next month.
