The law firm that helped San Diego embark on an ambitious water deal and guided the region’s legal strategy for 25 years has ended things with the San Diego County Water Authority.
In a new letter, attorneys with Brownstein Hayatte Farber Schreck LLP, told the Water Authority’s general manager that they would not provide legal services the agency wanted. This comes after the agency passed on a separate agreement with attorney Chris Frahm.
It seems like a good problem to have and one that should be getting even better.
The San Diego region has more than enough water and more is on the way. That’s a rarity in the parched West. It sounds great, but the reality is, it’s an increasingly costly burden.
The San Diego City Council on Tuesday passed a resolution in support of 10 bills wending their way through the state Capitol in Sacramento that their respective sponsors say will help lower utility bills and “hold investor-owned utilities accountable.”
Resolutions do not have the force of law, but Council President Joe LaCava said he introduced the measure because “it is the most powerful way we have at the moment to actually send a signal from San Diego to Sacramento.”
After years of legal battles over water rates, a new deal has promised more stability, efficiency and reliability for San Diego water ratepayers. In June, the San Diego County Water Authority and the Metropolitan Water District announced a settlement to a 15 year legal dispute over fluctuating prices and exchange agreements between the agencies. Water Authority Board Chair Nick Serrano joins our Laura Cavanaugh to dive deeper into this new era of collaboration and to explain why this move is such a game changer for our region.
The San Diego City Council voted 6-3 on Monday to schedule a public hearing on proposed water rate increases that could result in a cumulative hike of over 60% over the next four years. The increases, if approved, would begin in January 2026 and continue through 2029.
According to the Public Utilities Department, the combined monthly water and sewer bill for a single-family home could reach approximately $180. The proposed increases are attributed to several factors, including the cost of importing water, inflation, repairs to aging infrastructure, and investments in future water projects.
Lawmakers are poised to give California’s water districts legal cover from lawsuits as they work to meet strict new state standards for a cancer-causing toxic chemical.
It’s called hexavalent chromium, more commonly known as “chromium-6.” Drinking water with trace amounts of the chemical over long periods has been linked to cancer.
For the first time in decades, the San Diego County Water Authority’s representatives on the board of the Metropolitan Water District will not enjoy, or have to deal with, the guidance of Chris Frahm, the former chair of the Water Authority, who became the architect of its legal approach to Metropolitan.
In this week’s Politics Report, Scott Lewis broke the news that Frahm’s contract would not be coming back to the board after a tense exchange at the last board meeting .
You might have to start paying more for water and sewer utilities in the City of San Diego. The City Council’s Environment Committee wants to increase rates by more than 60% for water and more than 30% for sewer over the next four years.
We all need clean drinking water but for those in the City of San Diego, it might be getting more expensive to get it.
John Allen has an addiction, and he readily admits it. He can’t live without cycads. He has planted dozens of varieties of them across his 1-acre hillside property in rural Vista. Allen bought the house back in 2007 and lives there with his partner, Bob. Almost immediately after moving in, he started to redo the landscape.
“I turned off the outside water, killed the grass lawn in front and back, had juniper shrubs, hedges and some ice plants removed, along with dying avocado trees,” he recalled. “The only two plants remaining are Beaucarnea recurvata (ponytail palms).”
Relief from huge proposed rate hikes for San Diego water and sewer customers is looking less likely, after a consultant recommended no rate changes and after a City Council committee tentatively endorsed the increases Thursday.
City officials are proposing 62% hikes to water rates and 31% hikes to sewer rates over four years to cover sharply rising costs for workers, imported water, chemicals, energy, construction projects and other priorities.
