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The river responsible for the very existence of San Diego is again in crisis with major reservoirs used to store water at critically-low levels again – and still nobody can agree on how to save it.

Feb. 14 marks another deadline imposed by the federal government on seven U.S. states that rely on the Colorado River to figure out how to use less of it. Cities, farms, industries and tribes are all vying to exist in a world where there’s less water to support them.

The San Diego County Water Authority Board of Directors on Thursday, Jan. 22, unanimously elected Carlsbad City Councilmember Teresa Acosta as the board’s new secretary.

Acosta replaces Joy Lyndes, who stepped down following her recent announcement that she will not seek re-election to her position on the Encinitas City Council this year.

Three communities – San Diego, Oceanside and parts of East County – are entering the era of recycled water, at a crucial moment for local water politics. How that gets sorted out will be reflected in San Diegans’ water bills.

A decade ago, amid worries about the impact of drought on water supplies, those San Diego municipalities turned to recycled water, that is, turning sewage into drinking water. One local city, Carlsbad, also has a desalination plant, which turns seawater into drinking water.

It’s crunch time for negotiators from California and six other Western states trying to strike a deal before Feb. 14 on how to share the dwindling Colorado River. But four days of talks in a Salt Lake City conference room earlier this month did not appear to have sparked a breakthrough.

“We got tired of each other,” Utah’s negotiator, Gene Shawcroft, said last week at a public board meeting, days after the meeting ended. “And two of the days, we made some progress, but one day we went backwards almost as much progress as we made in two and a half days.”