The atmospheric river that blew in and out of the county on Monday and Tuesday left behind a bounty of much-needed rainfall all over San Diego. After generating some scattered drizzle, the unsettled atmospheric system out of the north began delivering steady showers to the county at around 8 a.m. Tuesday, according to the National Weather Service.
As California enters a fourth straight year of drought, more residents are taking advantage of free, online webinars helping them create a beautiful, water-efficient outdoor landscape. New three-hour workshops are now scheduled through December, funded in part by the County of San Diego Watershed Protection Program.
The Claude “Bud” Lewis Carlsbad Desalination Plant has served more than 100 billion gallons of high-quality, locally controlled water over the past seven years – a milestone passed in late October, as California entered a fourth consecutive year of severe drought.
Due to the persistence of California’s unprecedented megadrought, capturing rainfall when it occurs is a conservation priority. Several water districts in North San Diego County are offering discounted rain barrels.
The cost of water has over last two decades risen dramatically across San Diego County as a result of investments in desalination, ongoing maintenance, ever-increasing energy prices and unprecedented conservation.
Even as worsening drought and aridification force Los Angeles to end its overwhelming dependence on imported water, Angelenos may soon realize that weaning themselves off supplies from the rugged eastern Sierra Nevada doesn’t mean they will stop paying for the city’s long, complicated history there. That’s because, even if the city is able to make good on a pledge by Mayor Eric Garcetti to recycle 100% of its water by 2035 and increase its ability to capture storm water, Los Angeles will still have to pay millions of dollars to control the region’s hazardous dust pollution — an environmental consequence of L.A.’s draining of Owens Lake more than a century ago, as well as recent diversions that have lowered the level of Mono Lake farther north.
For decades, environmentalists have decried ocean desalination as an ecological disaster, while cost-savvy water managers have thumbed their noses at desal’s lofty price tag. But as the American Southwest barrels into a new era of extreme heat, drought and aridification, officials and conservationists are giving new consideration to the process of converting saltwater into drinking water, and the role it may play in California’s future.
Farmers and other ratepayers in Fallbrook and Rainbow could see an average saving on their water bills of more than $20 a month by joining the Eastern Municipal Water District in Riverside County, according to a new report.
California is entering this next year with a water deficit, that is unlikely to recover with an average year of precipitation. With reservoir levels and groundwater levels dropping, the Metropolitan Water District is innovating new ways to reduce our reliance on imported water. Metropolitan Water District plays an integral role in how we get our water in Southern California. They’re responsible for importing water from the Colorado River system and the State Water Project in Northern California, which is then distributed to water agencies around the southland.
A proposal to place solar panels over the 370-mile Los Angeles Aqueduct in an attempt to reduce evaporation and add capacity for renewable energy for residents was approved by a council committee this week. Around one-tenth of the water in the aqueduct is lost from evaporation each year due to the length of travel for water to make it through the aqueduct, according to the office of Councilman Mitch O’Farrell, who introduced the motion. O’Farrell is the chair of the council’s Energy, Climate Change, Environmental Justice, and River committee.
