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Water Rates Look Poised to go up – But Not as Steeply as Feared.

/in , /by /San Diego Union-Tribuneby David Garrick Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

Local water bills might not be going up quite as sharply next year as expected.

The County Water Authority’s board tentatively shrank a proposed rate hike for wholesale water from 18 percent to 14 percent on Thursday — despite concerns the move could hurt the water authority’s credit rating. An increase in wholesale rates will force nearly every local water agency to pass on the extra costs to its customers, but just how much gets passed on could vary widely.

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Water Authority Approves 4% Rise in Wholesale Rates – Maybe More to Come in July

/in , /by /Times of San Diego Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

The San Diego County Water Authority’s Board of Directors on Thursday approved an
increase of approximately 4% in wholesale rates for 2025. But that might not be all. The panel plans to assess the need for additional increases after a public hearing in July, according to an agency news release. The approved increase was designed to cover pass-through costs from the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California that start accruing on July 1.

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Morning Report: San Diego’s Water Gets (a Little) More Expensive

/in , /by /Voice of San Diego Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

After hours of debate, San Diego’s water importer (because the region has to buy most of its water from outside the county) decided to raise rates just a smidgen – and put off the doom-iest part of its proposed water price spike until next month.

Why? Well, a lot of local water district representatives (there are 33) weren’t comfortable with how the city of San Diego (the region’s biggest and most powerful water buyer) wanted to try and stave off bigger rate increases. And the city, which has the power to ram through anything it wants, hit the pause button instead.

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REPORT SUMMARY: The Magnitude of California’s Water Challenges

/in , /by /Maven's Notebook

California is on the brink of a water crisis, with projections showing a potential decrease in water availability by 4.6 to 9 million acre-feet yearly.  Despite conservation efforts, scarcity is inevitable, according to a new report titled “The Magnitude of California’s Water Challenges.”

Commissioned by the California Municipal Utilities Association and written by Jay Lund at UC Davis, Josue Medellín-Azuara at UC Merced, and Alvar Escriva-Bou with UCLA, the report outlines the state’s water management issues and predicts future water losses.  These estimates aim to guide public policy and investment choices in addressing California’s pressing water concerns.

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California’s Water Innovation: Technologies Driving Sustainability in the Golden State

/in , /by /San Diego Community Newspaper Group

Water is critical to California’s economic development, supporting environmental preservation as well as extensive agricultural, industrial, and recreational activities. The high demand for water, particularly in the hot summer months when prolonged droughts and water shortages are common, is fueling growing conflict between different user groups and regions over water availability.

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OPINION: The Case for Water Rate Increases

/in , /by /Voice of San Diegoby Jim Madaffer and Gary Arant Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

Most San Diegans don’t often think about the journey water takes before reaching our faucets. It involves hundreds of miles of pipes, multiple treatment plants and countless moving parts to deliver a reliable water supply to our region, which has nowhere near enough natural water sources to sustain us.

Any disruption along the way could have serious implications for local families and businesses. As a result, regular maintenance isn’t just a good idea, it’s an absolute necessity.

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OPINION: Deferring Maintenance on our Water System is a Risk We Can’t Afford to Take

/in , /by /Times of San Diegoby Jim Madaffer and Gary Arant Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

Most San Diegans don’t often think about the journey that water takes before reaching our faucets. It involves hundreds of miles of pipes, multiple treatment plants and countless moving parts to deliver a reliable water supply to our region, which has nowhere near enough natural water sources to sustain us.

Any disruption along the way could have serious implications for local families and businesses. As a result, regular maintenance isn’t just a good idea, it’s an absolute necessity.

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San Diego’s Water Prices Face Doomsday Increase

/in , /by /Voice of San Diegoby MacKenzie Elmer Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

Thursday is doomsday for water prices in San Diego.

That’s when the region’s water importer – the San Diego County Water Authority – debates whether to boost its prices a whopping 18 percent come Jan. 1. The price increase is massive compared to previous rate increases, and the Water Authority’s biggest customer, the city of San Diego, is pretty ticked off. For the last five years, water rates rose between 5 and 10 percent per year. The last time San Diego passed a higher price spike was 2010 at 20 percent.

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San Diego to Spend up to $100 Million for Dam Safety Consultant Over Next 10 Years

/in , /by /CBS 8

In recent years, the city of San Diego has released more than 11 billion gallons of freshwater from city-owned reservoirs into the ocean.

It has been done because many of the dams holding the water in are failing and have been placed on water restrictions to prevent a breach.

Now, the city of San Diego is looking to hire an outside consultant to manage its dam safety program for the next ten years at a price of up to $100 million.

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The Water War Between the US and Mexico

/in , /by /The Week USby Devika Rao

The U.S. and Mexico are experiencing another border dispute, and this one is about water. The conflict stems from an 80-year-old treaty where the countries agreed to share water from the Colorado River and the Rio Grande. However, because water is in more demand but scarcer than ever, sharing has not been going to plan.

The U.S. and Mexico signed a treaty in 1944 stipulating that Mexico send 1.75 million acre-feet of water to the U.S. every five years from the Rio Grande, and the U.S. send 1.5 million acre-feet of water to Mexico from the Colorado River each year. But water levels are lower than ever, and Mexico has “sent only about 30% of its expected deliveries, the lowest amount at this point of any four- or five-year cycles since 1992,” said Reuters.

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