The final official snow survey of the year finds the California snowpack at just 18% of average thanks to record heat in March.
“It feels like we skipped spring this year and dropped straight into a summer heatwave,” said Karla Nemeth, director of the Department of Water Resources. “What should be gradual snowmelt happened suddenly weeks ago.”
It’s a good problem to have in drought prone San Diego, an excess of water. Now, the county plans to sell some of it to other areas in need.
The San Diego County Water Authority has announced the sale of water to the Western Municipal Water District that covers parts of Riverside County, including Temecula.
The Helix water district is flipping the switch on their new electric vehicle charging capabilities. This comes as the state of California is requiring public agency fleet vehicles to shift towards being electric and fast. All new vehicles purchased must be zero-emission by 2030.
NBC 7’s Dana Williams checked out the new technology and shares why these chargers, in particular, are so important for San Diegans.
A water transfer agreement involving the Western Municipal Water District, the San Diego County Water Authority, and the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California was signed March 19 in San Diego.
The signing followed a unanimous SDCWA board vote to approve the agreement. Western Water will purchase a minimum of 10,000 acre-feet of water annually from the CWA.
Water, get your water here!
With Andrea and Bella out, Scott Lewis, Jakob McWhinney and Will Huntsberry held it down this week. Former County Supervisor Nathan Fletcher is re-emerging post-controversy. We’re talking press conferences, speeches and a new Substack, “Grounded,” about his life on a family ranch.
As state leaders battle along the Colorado River for a larger share, a city in California is possibly willing to sell its water to Arizona—but it comes at a huge price. Just a few years ago, Arizona considered asking Mexico to allow the construction of a desalination plant. It never happened, but in California, there already is one, leaving the question— can Arizona get a cut?
The salty Pacific might be one of the answers officials have been waiting for. In Carlsbad, California, the largest desalination plant in the Western Hemisphere provides 10% of San Diego’s water, and that water might soon be up for grabs.
A record-baking heat wave has been scalding California, with major consequences for the state’s most important reservoir: its snowpack.
Providing about a third of the state’s water supply, the Sierra Nevada snowpack is a vital source of spring and summer runoff that refills reservoirs when the state needs the water most.
On March 19, Western Water and the San Diego County Water Authority signed a water exchange agreement that will provide benefits across much of Southern California. The agreement is conservatively projected to save Western Water customers $49.1 million, provide the San Diego County Water Authority an ongoing revenue stream of more than $13 million per year and a one-time payment of $39.1 million.
The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California will continue to receive full cost of moving water for member agencies and gain an important tool in long-range planning for water supply resiliency in Riverside and San Diego counties.
On Thursday, we published a story about a deal San Diego is working on to sell water to other states. Environment reporter MacKenzie Elmer wrote that the San Diego County Water Authority is moving forward with plans to explore trading Colorado River water. The agency plans to explore those plans with Nevada, Arizona and the feds.
Elmer wrote that nobody had signed on yet. She had been working on that story for weeks, but the day she turned it in, the agency held a press conference to celebrate another deal: one they reached to sell water to Riverside.
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The San Diego County Water Authority and Western Municipal Water District Thursday inked a long-term water supply agreement to provide the Riverside County agency water and ensure consistent income for the SDCWA.
Under the agreement, Western Water will receive a minimum of 10,000 acre-feet of water annually over the next 21 years, enough to supply around 30,000 Southern California households each year. That agency, which provides water, wastewater, and recycled water services to nearly 1 million people across 527 square miles in western Riverside County, also agreed to purchase around 30,000 acre-feet of water for future delivery, a nearly $40 million investment.
