A bond measure on the Nov. 5 ballot that would provide $10 billion dollars for climate mitigation and resiliency projects around California gives voters a pretty stark choice, according to supporters. Pay now, or pay later.
The board of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California voted to allow more time to complete an investigation into accusations against General Manager Adel Hagekhalil, who was placed on leave more than four months ago in response to harassment allegations by the agency’s chief financial officer.
The board’s decision will extend Hagekhalil’s leave of absence until an investigator has finished interviews and submitted a report on the findings.
On the latest episode of StateScoop’s Priorities podcast, Samuel Alva, a technical adviser with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, explains the “huge” threat facing the nation’s tens of thousands of water utilities, and what they can do to protect themselves. “Water is a single point of failure. So that’s why it has been under attack,” he says.
The Biden administration has told Colorado River negotiators it no longer plans to issue its draft set of plans for managing the waterway in December, leaving the next major move in the battle over the West’s most important river to the next president.
The federal plans for the waterway are of increasing importance since the seven states that share it are deadlocked over new rules to govern the river after 2026. The Interior Department’s Bureau of Reclamation had said for months that it intended to issue them as part of a draft environmental impact statement at the end of the year.
Michael Mudurian served in the Air Force and then settled into his Point Loma home with an ocean view 50 years ago.
For decades, the lifelong bachelor said he had a pretty high water bill because he loved to water his garden and nourish the lush, green grass in his front yard.
At a special meeting on Oct. 7, the Santa Fe Irrigation District board started initial discussions on potential improvements to its corporate yard and administrative offices at their Rancho Santa Fe Village site on Linea Del Cielo. The project, which would address staff space needs, aging facilities and new regulations and compliance requirements, came with a projected cost of $31.3 million, which resulted in sticker shock for both board and community members.
“This is really the first of many steps of looking at a corporate yard facilities needs assessment,” said SFID General Manager Al Lau.
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.
