Lake Hodges is a San Diego landmark where people hike, bike, fish, kayak, canoe, bird watch and take photographs against the backdrop of a century-old, city-owned reservoir.
It’s also a disaster waiting to happen. The question is whether calamity would come by flood or by fire.
Drought cuts down harvests every year, but new local research may allow farmers to maximize their output even as water becomes more scarce.
A team at the Salk Institute investigating plant aging has charted a new path to drought-tolerant crops. While the broader scientific community is packed with research on human aging, they have found plants approach the process very differently.
Getting rid of the San Diego County Water Authority might be the best way to address regional water costs and needs in the future.
That’s what the plurality of concepts studied by the San Diego Local Agency Formation Commission or LAFCO, suggest under its first audit of the county’s water wholesaler. The Water Authority fell under LAFCO’s scrutiny a few years ago after two member water districts fought to leave the agency over its high water prices.
The Poway City Council unanimously approved a $441,000 payment to the city of San Diego on Tuesday to resolve a years-long billing dispute and establish an amended water rights agreement with the city.
The payment retroactively replaces water charges made by San Diego to Poway for the calendar years 2017 to 2025, according to a Poway staff report.
The Fallbrook Climate Action Team will host an informational meeting to learn about Fallbrook’s water infrastructure and future, Tuesday, April 28, 6:30 p.m. on Zoom.
The presenter, Jack Bebee, is general manager of the Fallbrook Public Utility District, and has more than 25 years in managing the engineering, operations, design and planning of water and wastewater infrastructure – including water treatment, distribution and wastewater collection and reclamation facilities.
Amid drought and water scarcity concerns, San Diego faces a unique problem: too much water. The solution? The San Diego County Water Authority is going to sell some of its water to Western Municipal Water District, which serves nearly 1 million people.
Over the next 21 years, the water authority will transfer at least 10,000 acre-feet of water per year, a deal that will be worth about $100 million over the first five years. An additional $74 million in new revenue will be generated by water sold to the Eastern Municipal Water District of Southern California.
As the climate reshapes the rules of survival, flexibility may become the most valuable resource. In a striking example of adaptation, San Diego is turning ocean water into a potential lifeline for the drought-stricken West, according to the Wall Street Journal.
With the flow of the Colorado River steadily declining, Arizona and Nevada are negotiating a first-of-its-kind agreement with the San Diego County Water Authority to secure a more reliable drinking water supply from the region’s state-of-the-art desalination facility.
In 2029, a new law will ban watering of “nonfunctional turf” with potable water. What is nonfunctional turf, and must your HOA prepare to remove it?
In 2023, the Legislature passed Assembly Bill 1572 and created Water Code Section 10608.14, applicable to properties including common interest developments. This new statute requires various property owners, including HOAs, to either remove nonfunctional turf or begin irrigating it with reclaimed water. HOAs must comply before 2029. Since most HOAs do not have reclaimed water readily available to them without great expense, many HOAs are erroneously assuming they must remove grass areas not regularly used by residents.
From building bridges to water and power plants, several public works projects in the Sacramento region are being impacted by rising costs. UC Davis economics professor Derek Stimel says large-scale projects face much higher risks from inflation.
“You have the war with Iran and all the uncertainty and all the impacts on oil prices and transportation costs because so much of this material that is needed for these big projects is imported,” Stimel said.
As most Western communities expect to grapple with water shortages this summer and fall, one is looking to share its unlikely surplus.
San Diego County in California spent nearly $1 billion on a desalination plant after a 1990s drought left it with scarce supply. Now, with the seawater-to-tap water plant running at just one-third of capacity, its water utility is shopping around deals to sell its water across the West.
