San Diego regional member water agencies and California water associations will offer multiple college scholarship opportunities in 2023 to help candidates secure their education as water and wastewater professionals.
We fell asleep to the sound of rain Sunday night and early birds who awoke bright and early Monday heard the last bit of showers passing through San Diego County.
The overnight storm made for a wet early morning commute and resulted in measurable rain for the county. Those who are in East County passing El Cajon got more rain than the rest of the region. Elsewhere, the rain measured below an inch.
It may not be the most pleasant thought, but the wastewater that flows through the Tapia Water Reclamation Facility in Agoura Hills could one day come out of your faucet.
“We’re taking the water that we would normally discharge into Malibu Creek and we’re going to create a local drinking supply out of this,” said Michael McNutt with the Las Virgenes Municipal Water District.
In November 2022 the Sweetwater Authority initiated a controlled transfer of water between the Loveland Reservoir to the Sweetwater Reservoir where water is treated and distributed to Authority customers in National City, Chula Vista and Bonita. The Loveland Reservoir, owned and operated by the water utility, was built in 1945 pooling water from the Sweetwater River. It has been a destination for fishing, birdwatching, and hiking. After a second water transfer in January between the two reservoirs and substantial storms which caused damage to the HUD-funded fishing pier and erosion damage to the trails, Loveland is now closed to the public for all recreational usage for an indefinite period of time.
Sweetwater Authority General Manager Carlos Quintero said, bottom line, with both water transfers there is not enough water to fish. He said Loveland has always been a water supply reservoir.
“Our mission is to provide water to the Sweetwater customers,” he said. “We use both of our reservoirs. They work in conjunction. Sweetwater is in Spring Valley and that is where we have our treatment plant. When conditions are optimal, when we are outside the arroyo toad breeding season, that is when we can transfer water from one reservoir to another. It is a 17-mile trek for every drop of water, and we try to find the optimal conditions to minimize our losses.”
The California Pollution Control Financing Authority plans to price $158 million in revenue bonds next week to pay for modifications to the seawater intake system for a San Diego County desalination plant.
The Claude “Bud” Lewis Carlsbad Desalination Plant was built by private operator Poseidon as a partnership that supplies water to the San Diego County Water Authority.
The plant, developed by Poseidon and operated by IDE Technologies, has produced more than 100 billion gallons of desalinated seawater since it opened in December 2015, providing San Diego County with 10% of its water supply each year, according to the preliminary limited offering memorandum.
The San Diego County Regional Airport Authority captured, treated and reused 812,500 gallons of stormwater last year, according to a report released Wednesday.
That water, which would otherwise naturally have run off into San Diego Bay, was then used to heat and cool buildings at San Diego International Airport.
As the state continues to deal with a historic drought, Southern California homeowners are getting the chance to transform their thirsty grass and gardens.
The Metropolitan Water District offers rebates to residents ripping up their lawns and putting in plants that don’t need a lot of water to survive.
The Santa Clarita Valley Water Agency unanimously approved a bond issuance that would raise $75 million by 2032 and a debt-financing plan that would saddle the water retailer with a little more than a half-billion dollars in debt, according to the agency’s plans.
The efforts are expected to help the agency address capital projects’ costs estimated in the neighborhood of $747 million through the life of the bond issuance, according to SCV Water’s financial advisers.
