Alarmed by Oceanside’s shrinking beaches, a group of residents succeeded this week in getting the city to consider taking on the federal government’s oversight of a local sand replenishment project. The City Council unanimously approved a motion Wednesday by Mayor Peter Weiss to have staffers prepare a capital budget amendment to cover the anticipated costs of a sand-retention project. Details will be presented at an upcoming council meeting.
Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed two bills that are critical to San Diego’s plans for improved mass transit and water recycling for long-term drought protection. On Friday night the governor signed Assemblyman Todd Gloria’s Assembly Bill 1413, which will support local referendums on transit funding, and Assembly Bill 1290 by Gloria and Sen. Toni Atkins that clears the way for the pioneering Pure Water project.
Activists pushed for action at a rally Saturday morning addressing the toxic flow of sewage from Tijuana into Southern California beaches.
Sewage flowing into the Tijuana River has been responsible for closing beaches an average of 300 days a year. Environmental organization “Stop the Poop” wants to see permanent solutions.
“This is environmental and biological terrorism on the people of the United States of America,” said Stop the Poop Founder Baron Partlow.
In its effort to establish a new, drought-proof source of water that could serve a half-million Southern California homes, the Metropolitan Water District on Thursday, Oct. 10 unveiled a $17 million pilot plant that will bring wastewater to drinkable standards.
Water from the trial project in Carson will not be piped to customers – it will be put back with regularly treated wastewater and pumped into the ocean.
The military sector accounts for more than 20% of the San Diego region’s economy, and that would not be possible without a safe, reliable water supply. The San Diego County Water Authority and its 24 member agencies, including Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, provide the water needed for military operations, military families and military contractors.
A new report shows that an estimated total of $28.1 billion in direct spending related to defense flowed into San Diego County during fiscal year 2019, accounting for one-in-five jobs in the region.
Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a proposed rule that significantly improves the actions that water systems must take to reduce lead in the nation’s drinking water. EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler announced the proposal at an event in Green Bay. This action represents the first major overhaul of the Lead and Copper Rule since 1991 and marks a critical step in advancing the Trump Administration’s Federal Action Plan to Reduce Childhood Lead Exposures.
HUNTINGTON BEACH—Southern California was hit with enough rain in 2019 for many experts and observers to declare an end to the region’s most recent drought – which could be bad news for Poseidon Water’s plans to build a desalination plant near land’s edge in Huntington Beach. It is hard to drum up a lot of noise for water security when we’re not in a drought. The current state of Southern California’s water security – or insecurity – certainly isn’t giving Poseidon any ammunition to make its case for a $1 billion desalination plant in Huntington Beach.
Working to “Make Every Source a Resource” and striving toward a more sustainable future, East Valley Water District (EVWD) Board of Directors approved the addition of state-of-the-art co-digester technology at the Sterling Natural Resource Center (SNRC) during the Sept. 11 board meeting. This enhancement represents a significant improvement to the project by allowing the SNRC to produce enough renewable electricity to meet the facility’s energy needs, with additional electricity transferred onto the energy grid.
If a water reclamation facility goes off-line, it is a major problem. Yet there are certain major maintenance operations that can’t be done while the process is running normally. So, what gives when this particular irresistible force meets this immovable object? You have to get creative. The City of Victorville, CA built an innovative treatment plant for their community in 2010, which takes both sanitary wastewater as well as industrial wastewater from a beverage bottling facility and provides recycled water to a nearby power plant. It handles an average flow of 1.7 million gallons per day.
In its effort to establish a new, drought-proof source of water that could serve a half-million Southern California homes, the Metropolitan Water District on Thursday, Oct. 10 unveiled a $17 million pilot plant that will bring wastewater to drinkable standards. Water from the trial project in Carson will not be piped to customers – it will be put back with regularly treated wastewater and pumped into the ocean. But it’s a key step toward construction of a working plant that would reduce the region’s dependence on imported water.
