A 20-year fight over the Poseidon Water company’s contested Huntington Beach desalination proposal will enter its last lap on March 17, the day the California Coastal Commission is set to hear it in what could be the project’s final regulatory hurdle.
Official word on the hearing date came to Voice of OC in a concise Tuesday night email from commission spokesperson Noaki Schwartz:
“Hearing will be March 17.”
The three major U.S. rating agencies reported strong credit ratings and credit quality for the San Diego County Water Authority kicking off 2022. Newly released analysis by Fitch Ratings, S&P Global, and Moody’s allow the Water Authority to optimize its debt portfolio and minimize the cost of financing vital water reliability projects.
As part of its preventive maintenance program to safeguard its water supply and reduce water loss, the Otay Water District is conducting leak inspections of its pipeline system. Leak detection and repair programs save water by ensuring water system integrity. The District uses state-of-the-art equipment to inspect its water distribution system for leaks in pipelines, meters, and valves. The equipment is designed to “listen” for leaks and can pinpoint the location of even the smallest water leak. Once identified, crews will schedule the needed repairs.
Just north of downtown — and a stone’s throw from the growling 5 Freeway — the concrete bed of the Los Angeles River gives way to soft earth and an explosion of riparian life: Cottonwood and sycamore trees push skyward, while fish dart beneath the swooping shadows of cackling waterfowl. The scents of mulefat scrub and sage hang in the air.
For many, it’s a vision of what the Los Angeles River looked like before it was transformed into a massive flood control channel. It also serves as a rallying point for those environmentalists who want to see the river returned to a more natural state.
The City of Santa Monica, Calif. has broken ground on its Arcadia Water Treatment Plant (WTP), as well as on restorations to the Olympic Well Field. The key water infrastructure improvements are a component of the City’s goal of becoming water self-sufficient by 2023.
Santa Monica’s water system comprises groundwater basins, treatment facilities, and imported water connections to serve 18,000 customers with an average annual water demand of approximately 11,600 acre-feet per year (AFY).
There’s been a lot of talk lately about the cost of water — and that makes sense given the economic realities faced by many residents, farmers, and businesses. But it also seems that newer generations of San Diegans do not know that there was a time when we didn’t have water when and where we needed it.
Thankfully, that’s not a problem in San Diego County today even though elsewhere drought-stricken communities face the potential of only having enough water to meet basic health and safety needs.
A helicopter whisks off a rooftop in downtown Los Angeles, climbs above a thin layer of haze and soars over barren mountains past the city’s edge. Soon, scars of climatic stress are evident to L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti and Martin Adams, general manager and chief engineer of the city’s water and power department, as they peer out the windows. Trees torched years ago by wildfire. Flats parched by sun and little precipitation.
San Diego will finish January with 0.16 inches of rain, making it the driest January since 2014, when San Diego International Airport recorded 0.01 inches of precipitation, says the National Weather Service.
Forecasters say the airport won’t receive any rain on Sunday or Monday, and that the region is unlikely to get significant precipitation through February 7.
The airport averages 1.86 inches in January.
Not every water development plan has gone over well. In the late 1990s, a $55 million LADWP plan to treat wastewater to potable standards was killed after public outcry, with newspapers labeling the concept with the icky phrase “toilet to tap.”
But attitudes have changed. Other parts of Southern California have shown that reclaimed water is safe to drink, and public awareness has grown to the point that what L.A. is planning at its sewage treatment plants no longer seems novel, Adams says.
As partners, the City of San Diego and the San Diego County Water Authority will begin negotiations on a project development agreement with the BHE Kiewit Team to develop Phase 1 of the potential San Vicente Energy Storage Facility Project, which could generate enough energy for about 135,000 households.
The proposed project is subject to a full environmental review and regulatory approvals.
