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Microclimate Matching in Your Landscaping Plan

/in , , /by /Water News Network

Earlier in our Conservation Corner series, we described how to map the different types of microclimates present in your landscaping. Using this information helps homeowners arrange plants in a new sustainable landscape. For the most efficient water use, plants should be grouped together with similar water needs according to their preferred microclimate.

In nature, plants that like lots of water are found along the banks of a stream, or grouped together at the base of a depression. Plants that need fast-draining soils so roots don’t rot might be found on hillsides. Plants that love lots of sunshine won’t grow in the shade of a tree.

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Poway City Council to Review 2021-22 Budget

/in , , /by /Poway News Chieftainby Emily Sorensen Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

The Poway City Council will review the proposed fiscal year 2021-22 operating budget and capital improvement program at its 7 p.m. meeting on Tuesday.

The council will be asked to hold a public hearing, receive a report from the Budget Review Committee, consider committee recommendations and adopt the budget resolutions.

 

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Water Authority Congratulates New MWD GM Adel Hagekhalil

/in , , /by /Water News Network Quoted: San Diego County Water Authority

On June 8, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California Board of Directors voted to approve Adel Hagekhalil as the next General Manager replacing Jeff Kightlinger, who announced his retirement. Hagekhalil is scheduled to meet with the San Diego County Water Authority’s Board of Directors at its June 24 board meeting.

The San Diego County Water Authority issued the following statement by Board Chair Gary Croucher:

“It is with great pleasure that I congratulate Chairwoman Gloria Gray and the MWD Board of Directors on the selection of Adel Hagekhalil to serve as the district’s next General Manager. Adel is exactly the kind of person and visionary leader Southern California needs, especially as we experience another period of sustained drought, to help guide MWD as it faces important near- and long-term planning decisions impacting its water supply resources and water rates and charges.

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After a Bitter Fight, Southern California’s Water Kingpin Has a New Leader

/in , , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Sammy Roth

The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California has hired Adel Hagekhalil as its next general manager, following a bitter power struggle over the future of an agency that delivers hundreds of billions of gallons each year from the Colorado River and Northern California to a region that otherwise wouldn’t have nearly enough water to support 19 million people.

Hagekhalil was previously second in command at the Los Angeles Bureau of Sanitation, where he helped develop strategies for cutting the city’s use of imported water — and therefore its reliance on Metropolitan. He said he’ll bring a shift in focus to the agency, putting more emphasis on recycling sewage water, capturing rainwater and cleaning up groundwater aquifers.

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Abatti Responds to IID’s Supreme Court Filing

/in , , /by /Holtville Tribuneby Elizabeth Varin

Imperial Valley grower, landowner and former elected official Michael Abatti has responded to the Imperial Irrigation District’s official filing in his U.S. Supreme Court petition. The official response was filed sometime Monday, June 7. In March, Abatti filed for a “writ of certiorari” with the U.S. Supreme Court seeking review of the California Court of Appeal, Fourth Appellate District’s decision in Abatti v. Imperial Irrigation District, to which the district was ordered by the High Court to provide a formal response last month.

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CVWD Approves Steep Water Bill Hikes for Small Homeowners

/in , , /by /Palm Springs Desert Sunby Janet Wilson

The Coachella Valley Water District board voted Tuesday to approve up to five years worth of potential rate hikes, including steep increases for small homeowners beginning July 1.

“It’s never a joy to increase rates… but I look across the (Coachella) valley and into Riverside and I think we’re competitive,” Director Peter Nelson said.

While a few customers objected by phone and Zoom before the vote, and 166 written protests against the increases were received, a whopping 64,906 written protests would have been needed to stop the vote per state law.

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FPUD Now Accepting Applications For Summer Internship

/in , /by /Village News

Students at Fallbrook High, Oasis High or Ivy High schools can now apply online for a paid summer internship at Fallbrook Public Utility District. This year, FPUD is looking for students interested in a career in social media and customer service. The internship is available to any student enrolled in one of those schools as a junior or senior for the upcoming 2021-2022 school year. Candidates must be 16 years or older on the first day of the internship, July 12. Pay will be $14 per hour, and the intern will work three hours per week, for six weeks. The internship is designed for students looking to help with social media outreach, create posts and videos, assist with outreach and developing ideas, and learn more about the water industry. It will provide a hands-on learning experience to help build skills and knowledge to help guide students to potential career paths.

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Hefty Water Rate Hikes Could be Coming for CVWD Customers

/in , , /by /Palm Springs Desert Sunby Janet Wilson

The Coachella Valley Water District is expected to vote Tuesday on a series of hikes that could sharply raise some residential and commercial customers’ monthly water bills over the next five years.

The proposed hikes would mean an average family that uses about 20 ccf  per month could see their bill rise from $32 currently to $48 by 2026, according to agenda materials. A ccf, or one hundred cubic feet, equals is 748 gallons of water.

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Analysis Critiques San Diego’s Plan to Raise Sewer Rates 28% in Four Years

/in , , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby David Garrick

San Diegans in single-family homes may get a modest reprieve from a city plan to increase sewer rates nearly 19 percent next year and a total of 28 percent over the next four years. The city recently got a legally mandated second opinion on a consultant’s analysis that was used to calculate the rate increases, and the second opinion says the increases should be more gradual and smaller. City officials concede the initial analysis may have been too “conservative,” prompting higher rate increases than necessary. They have agreed to incorporate the second opinion analysis into their recommendations for rate increases. The City Council is scheduled to receive those final recommendations in July and then vote on them in September, with new rates potentially taking effect in January for the city’s 2.2 million sewer customers.

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Battle Over Southern California Water Czar is Clash Between Old Vision and New, Observers Say

/in , , /by /Press Telegramby Teri Sforza

The most important thing to understand: If you’re reading this, you live in a desert. And you can live in this desert because politicians, scientists and engineers have moved mountains, almost literally, to bring you life-giving water.

The latest brawl in Water World plays out on this backdrop, and what comes out of your tap may well depend on the result. Will it come from recycled waste water? Desalination plants? A giant tunnel or two under the Delta? The answers will, in large part, depend on who’s chosen to lead the gargantuan Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, which provides water to 19 million people from Ventura County to the Mexican border.

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