Lawmakers are poised to give California’s water districts legal cover from lawsuits as they work to meet strict new state standards for a cancer-causing toxic chemical.
It’s called hexavalent chromium, more commonly known as “chromium-6.” Drinking water with trace amounts of the chemical over long periods has been linked to cancer.
For the first time in decades, the San Diego County Water Authority’s representatives on the board of the Metropolitan Water District will not enjoy, or have to deal with, the guidance of Chris Frahm, the former chair of the Water Authority, who became the architect of its legal approach to Metropolitan.
In this week’s Politics Report, Scott Lewis broke the news that Frahm’s contract would not be coming back to the board after a tense exchange at the last board meeting .
You might have to start paying more for water and sewer utilities in the City of San Diego. The City Council’s Environment Committee wants to increase rates by more than 60% for water and more than 30% for sewer over the next four years.
We all need clean drinking water but for those in the City of San Diego, it might be getting more expensive to get it.
John Allen has an addiction, and he readily admits it. He can’t live without cycads. He has planted dozens of varieties of them across his 1-acre hillside property in rural Vista. Allen bought the house back in 2007 and lives there with his partner, Bob. Almost immediately after moving in, he started to redo the landscape.
“I turned off the outside water, killed the grass lawn in front and back, had juniper shrubs, hedges and some ice plants removed, along with dying avocado trees,” he recalled. “The only two plants remaining are Beaucarnea recurvata (ponytail palms).”
Relief from huge proposed rate hikes for San Diego water and sewer customers is looking less likely, after a consultant recommended no rate changes and after a City Council committee tentatively endorsed the increases Thursday.
City officials are proposing 62% hikes to water rates and 31% hikes to sewer rates over four years to cover sharply rising costs for workers, imported water, chemicals, energy, construction projects and other priorities.
The settlement will save millions in legal fees and will pave the way for San Diego to sell some of the expensive water it has secured over the last 30 years.
Oceanside residents and business owners can expect a bump in water and sewer rates beginning Jan. 1 under a proposal headed to the Oceanside City Council for approval in September.
The city’s Water Utilities Department has proposed an average 6% increase for water rates across all categories of users in 2026 and the same amount again in 2027, and 4% more each year for sewer rates, officials said Tuesday.
While the product may look strange, Dr. Michel Boudrias is leading a team of students at University of San Diego with what might be the future of ocean cleanup.
“It smells like a like a fish market,” undergraduate student Nikki Cardino says. “But like not one that you wanna buy any fish from!”
The Helix Water District — a public water utility serving 278,000 people in San Diego’s East County suburbs — recently received a Green Business certification from the California Green Business Network and the City of La Mesa.
This certification recognizes the district’s ongoing commitment to environmentally responsible business practices.
