A broken levee shut down U.S. Highway 101 in Northern California on Wednesday and forced about 30 students and teachers to spend the night in their school’s gym.
Meanwhile, a nursing home in a neighboring county evacuated its residents because of flooding.
The levee near the school in Chualar was partially breached about 2 p.m., KSBW reported. The rain came as an atmospheric river storm drenched the state.
It rained in Southern California again on Wednesday.
The storm, Marty Ralph told me, was caused by an atmospheric river, a meteorological phenomenon you have been hearing more about lately as climate change drives bigger swings between tinder dry conditions and pounding rain.
And although the rain caused the usual traffic headaches and advisories against swimming at the beach, this particular atmospheric river was actually “primarily beneficial,” according to a scale that Mr. Ralph, the director of the Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, helped develop.
There may be a literal energy windfall off the coast of California but it is still unclear whether the federal government will give approval to specific sites and how long it will take before tall turbines are bobbing on the Pacific, sending electricity to customers across the Golden State.
Wind energy’s boosters are eager to see proposed projects get the go-ahead.
“Let’s get a couple of these rolling, get some floating offshore turbines out there and build this over time, which is exactly what you’re seeing on the East Coast,” said Tom Kiernan, CEO of the American Wind Energy Association.
The recent contamination of Poway’s water was caused in part by storm drain and reservoir connections that are not in compliance with state regulations, a state official told KPBS Wednesday.
The system was overwhelmed during last week’s rains and storm water flowed into a reservoir of treated water that was then piped into homes and businesses, according Sean Sterchi, the San Diego District Engineer for the state’s Water Resources Control Board Division of Drinking Water.
The City of San Diego’s Public Utilities Department last week took a major step toward completing an innovative project to improve water quality in Lake Hodges. A newly installed oxygenation system, designed by city engineers, will introduce highly oxygenated water to the bottom of the reservoir to reduce the accumulation of excess nutrients and harmful algae growth.
The increase of nutrients and algae in the water has been caused by human activities in the watershed upstream of the reservoir, including residential and commercial development, agriculture, and land clearing. Degraded water quality can restrict the ability to move water in and out of the reservoir.
The Trump administration is jump-starting a plan to repair a badly sinking canal in the San Joaquin Valley, a year after California voters rejected a bond measure that would have had them pay for the project.
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation said Tuesday it will begin studying the environmental impact of fixing a 323-mile stretch of the Friant-Kern Canal — a critical water artery on the Valley’s east side. The federal agency said the repairs are needed to boost water deliveries to 1 million acres of farmland that have been dramatically reduced because of the sagging canal.
A group of local officials from around the county introduced a resolution Tuesday calling on the federal government to take action to stop cross-border sewage flows in the Tijuana River Valley.
The group of officials — including San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer, Imperial Beach Mayor Serge Dedina, Port of San Diego Commissioner Dan Malcolm and county Supervisor Greg Cox — held a news conference in Imperial Beach to introduce a list of recommended actions, which will be voted on by multiple city councils and boards in the coming weeks.
Working with two international consultancies, Ricardo and Mott MacDonald, the sector will develop a comprehensive action plan detailing the measures the industry will deploy to achieve zero carbon emissions over the next decade.
The water industry is the first industrial sector in the UK, and one of the first major sectors in the world, to commit to a carbon zero future by 2030. The goal forms part of the industry’s Public Interest Commitment (PIC) released earlier this year with the carbon zero goal one of five stretching social and environmental ambitions.
POWAY — The boil-water advisory that Poway has been under since the weekend will likely be lifted on Friday, Poway Mayor Steve Vaus said Tuesday night just prior to the start of a City Council meeting.
Vaus said tests continue to show no contamination of the city’s water supply, but state regulators are requiring two more days of testing before giving the all clear.
