Rain is in the forecast this week, and residents with rain barrels are getting ready. “Right before it rains, I make sure that they are empty so that I have space for more water,” said Robin Reed-Anderson, an Encinitas resident. She has four barrels on her property that collect rainwater.
The Water News Network top stories of 2022 were drought-related and features about technology and college scholarships also engaged readers.
Paloma Aguirre has fought to clean up the sewage-plagued waters of Imperial Beach for the better part of the last two decades — first as an activist and most recently as the city’s first elected woman of Mexican descent. The city’s newly minted mayor says her highest priority next year will be working with officials in Baja California to stem the pollution that routinely spills over the border and floats up the coastline.
The first of two Pacific storms will push into San Diego County on Tuesday night and likely drop a half-inch or more of rain at and near the coast and slightly more in the foothills and mountains by early Wednesday, says the National Weather Service. The rain represents the tail of a much larger system that is soaking the Bay Area and is expected to bring heavy snow to the Sierra Nevada, benefiting many of the state’s reservoirs.
San Diego’s southernmost beaches are blighted by sewage that spills into the cross-border Tijuana River and flows to the ocean. Before 2022, the best available coastal water testing technology took so long to furnish results that public health officials couldn’t surmise how safe the water was until days after visitors swam in it.
The city of San Diego and East County leaders have resolved a months-long dispute over a planned water recycling project, heading off a potentially expensive court fight over what to do with the plant’s waste.
More than $63 million in proposed federal funding was announced Tuesday to support nearly two dozen projects across the San Diego region.
Sen. Alex Padilla, D-California, said in a statement that the Fiscal Year 2023 appropriations package that will deliver funding for 22 projects slated for the San Diego region will head next to both chambers of Congress for final passage.
Among the projects expected to receive funding in the package are:
— $3.45 million for the City of Oceanside‘s Loma Alta Creek Sewer Relocation, which will move a sewer main from a creek bed to a roadway to minimize environmental damage in the event of a sanitary sewer overflow.
— $3.45 million for the Smuggler’s Gulch Dredging Project, which will clear trash and sediment to protect downstream communities, and protect human and environmental health in the Tijuana River Watershed and coastal waters.
— $3.39 million for Borrego Water District‘s Borrego Spring Transmission Main, which will update the water distribution system and reduce water pipeline breaks.
— $3.06 million for the Valley Center Municipal Water District‘s Lilac Road Pipeline Replacement, which is aimed at reducing water loss and improving water conservation, among other benefits of the 60-year-old pipeline’s replacement.
A perfect combination of cosmic events will occur this holiday season to bring astronomically high tides known as king tides to San Diego just before Christmas, forecasters say. The phenomenon, which describes what are typically some of the highest tides of the year, are scheduled to occur on Dec. 23 and 24. A second round is predicted to happen on Jan. 21 and 22. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) predicts that this winter season’s tides may cause coastal flooding in low-lying areas of San Diego.
The cavalry is coming, so to speak, in the form of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which entered into a feasibility study agreement with local and state government agencies to find shovel-ready solutions for saving the Salton Sea.
The significance of the collaboration was highlighted at a signing ceremony held at the North Shores Beach and Yacht Club near Mecca on Friday, Dec. 16, where the Salton Sea Authority, California Natural Resources Agency, California Department of Fish and Wildlife, and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers entered into the Imperial Streams Salton Sea Feasibility Cost-Share Agreement, which will develop and propose solutions to save the ever-receding Salton Sea.
Ramona Municipal Water District directors next month will discuss a proposal to waive water and sewer service fees for accessory dwelling units built at the same time as a single-family home. Directors reviewed fees for small accessory dwelling units, also known as ADUs or granny flats, at their Dec. 13 meeting. But instead of approving the proposal, they asked staff to research how other water districts manage the fees for those types of buildings.
