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Trade Agreement Includes $300 Million For Border Pollution Cleanup, Including Tijuana River Valley

/in , , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribune by Charles T. Clark

The new United States-Mexico-Canada trade agreement reached Tuesday commits the federal government to provide $300 million for the Border Water Infrastructure Program to address pollution on the U.S.-Mexico border, including the Tijuana River Valley region, where millions of gallons of raw sewage, heavy metals and other contaminants regularly flow from Tijuana to San Diego.

The funding likely represents the most significant federal commitment to the problem in decades, elected officials said.

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Threat Of Drought Wiped Off California Map After Soaking Storms

/in , /by /SF Gate by Amy Graff

What a difference a couple storms make.

The recent onslaught of soaking rains and snowy days has wiped the threat of drought off the California map.

The latest federal Drought Monitor Map, a way to measure drought that’s mainly used in agriculture, shows only 3.5 percent of the state as “abnormally dry” with a tiny sliver of yellow on the California-Oregon border. Only a week ago, 85 percent of the state was yellow.

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Opinion: Don’t Go Into The Tunnel

/in , /by /New Timesby Andrew Christie

Last month, at the urging of the SLO County State Water Subcontractors Advisory Committee, the three largest state water subcontractors in the county—Morro Bay, Pismo Beach, and the Oceano CSD—voted to “participate in preliminary efforts associated with the Delta Conveyance Project,” aka the Delta Tunnel.

Votes of support by local jurisdictions bring the project one step closer to reality. Reality is a costly giant tunnel that would divert Sacramento River water bound for the Sacramento/San Joaquin Delta and transport the water directly to Central Valley farms and urban users in the Bay Area and Southern California.

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Inspection Found 12 Flaws In Poway’s Water Delivery System

/in , /by /ABC 10 News San Diego by Jonathan Horn

A state inspection found 12 flaws in Poway’s drinking water delivery system less than three months before the city’s precautionary boil water advisory.

City officials remain adamant that the issues raised by the inspection had nothing to do with the nearly week-long advisory that ended Dec. 6.

The September 2019 inspection, from the State Water Resources Control Board, raised a series of issues – some administrative. It says some of Poway’s distribution system reservoirs haven’t been cleaned or inspected in more than five years; that the city’s coagulant feed pump meter isn’t working, and that the city needs to update its water quality alarm systems for chlorine and clarity.

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Metropolitan Water District To Provide Incentives To San Diego’s Water Recycling Project

/in , /by /Water Technology Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

Metropolitan Water District’s board of directors has approved up to $285.6m of incentives to San Diego’s Pure Water recycling project, which is worth $1.4bn, over the next 25 years.

The water recycling project will feature advanced treatment processes to purify wastewater in order to supply drinking water to the city’s residents.

Metropolitan Water District of Southern California supplies water to 26 member agencies, which together serve 19 million people in six counties.

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National City Firefighters Get WaterSmart with Sweetwater Authority

/in , , /by /WaterNewsNetwork

The National City Fire Department is learning more about the water system it relies on, thanks to some specialized training for firefighters from Sweetwater Authority staff. Firefighters wanted to learn more about the water distribution system and where the city’s water originates. The department also wanted to review the location of Sweetwater Authority’s treatment facilities, pump stations, and learn about any areas of lower water pressure or dead-end hydrants. The design of water distribution system facilities such as pipes, tanks, and pumps is dictated by fire protection requirements.

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Water Cutbacks Set to Begin Under Deal Designed to ‘Buy Down Risk’ on Colorado River

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

Arizona, Nevada and Mexico will start taking less water from the Colorado River in January as a hard-fought set of agreements kicks in to reduce the risk of reservoirs falling to critically low levels. The two U.S. states agreed to leave a portion of their water allotments in Lake Mead under a deal with California called the Lower Basin Drought Contingency Plan, or DCP, which the states’ representatives signed at Hoover Dam in May. California agreed to contribute water at a lower trigger point if reservoir levels continue to fall. And Mexico agreed under a separate accord to take steps to help prop up Lake Mead, the nation’s largest reservoir near Las Vegas, which now sits 40% full after a nearly 20-year run of mostly dry years.

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Precipitation Above Normal in Southern California and Adding Up in the North

/in , , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Paul Duginski

Skiers and snowboarders already know this: California’s recent storms have lifted the state’s precipitation totals to the respectable range in the northern part of the state, and to well above normal in the south, according to Jan Null of Golden Gate Weather Services. Skiers and snowboarders already know this: California’s recent storms have lifted the state’s precipitation totals to the respectable range in the northern part of the state, and to well above normal in the south, according to Jan Null of Golden Gate Weather Services.

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Congress to Halt Military Use of Toxic Foam Contaminating Drinking Water

/in , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Anna M. Phillips

Congress has reached a deal on a spending bill that would require the military to stop using firefighting foam containing toxic chemicals linked to cancer, but would abandon efforts to place stronger regulations on the chemicals. The bill, called the National Defense Authorization Act, has been the focus of intense negotiations for months. House Democrats saw it as their best chance to force President Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency to increase its oversight of a class of chemicals, called perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances — commonly known as PFAS — that have contaminated drinking water sources across the country.

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How the New North American Trade Pact May Lead to a Sewage Cleanup of the Tijuana River Valley

/in , , /by /San Diego Union-Tribuneby Rob Nikolewski

Local economic and government officials Tuesday praised the new United States-Mexico-Canada deal as a way to further boost the San Diego-Tijuana cross-border economy. But an environmental concern — the runoff of raw sewage that often flows from Tijuana and fouls beaches from Imperial Beach to as far north as Coronado — might end up being one of the agreement’s most significant measures.

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