The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has awarded three San Diego County water agencies a total of $2,788,500 in 2021 WaterSMART Water and Energy Efficiency Grants. A total of $42.4 million in grants was given to 55 projects across 13 states to improve water reliability and efficiency, conserving more 98,000 acre-feet of water per year.
A San Diego program that aims to keep toxic sewer water out of the Pacific Ocean suffers from outdated methods and inadequate efforts to identify and inspect the business sites of industrial polluters, a new city audit says.
The 56-page audit says the program, which oversees industrial polluters served by San Diego and 12 other local sewer districts, needs to step up efforts to find polluters and modernize its inspection program.
Ismahan Abdullahi was seated on the Board of Directors on January 25, 2021, representing the City of San Diego. Director Abdullahi serves on the Administrative and Finance and Engineering and Operations committees for the Water Authority.
On World Water Day, March 22, government agencies, nonprofits, organizations and individual citizens came together in support of clean water and healthy communities for the launch of Project Clean Water’s public outreach campaign. Project Clean Water is a county-wide initiative dedicated to protecting water quality in San Diego County. The public outreach campaign aims to raise awareness of stormwater issues and encourage behaviors that promote water quality.
Helix Water District will use $2.8 million received from the San Diego County Water Authority as part of a legal settlement with the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California to reduce future water rates for the district’s customers.
Padre Dam Municipal Water District’s Board of Directors has unanimously approved using the recently received $1,157,552 rebate from the San Diego County Water Authority to offset the District’s next pass-through rate increase from the CWA. This action will result in a direct benefit to customers by the reduction or potential elimination of a water pass through rate hike in 2022.
Poway is gearing up for several years of water infrastructure improvement projects, including replacing the city’s aging clearwell.
The Poway City Council received an update at its Tuesday night meeting on the Water Infrastructure Improvement Program, which includes three projects spanning the next four-to-five years.
The program includes bypassing and then replacing the clearwell with two new storage tanks. Poway’s clearwell, which was built in 1964, is used to store treated water from the city’s Lester J. Berglund Water Treatment Plant before distribution.
The other project in the program is creating a treated water connection to the San Diego County Water Authority. Poway has a raw water connection to the SDCWA and treats its own water, but a treated water connection will build redundancy in the system, said Shadi Sami, principal civil engineer.
A proposal to create a watchdog for South Los Angeles County’s dozens of disjointed and struggling water systems has stirred fear among public agencies and companies further down the pipeline that they could be the target of hostile takeovers. AB 1195, introduced by Assemblywoman Christina Garcia, would establish the Southern Los Angeles County Regional Water Agency and grant it authority to assist failing water systems with aging infrastructure, or to take control if a system is no longer able to provide affordable, clean drinking water.
All three major rating agencies – S&P, Moody’s, and Fitch – have affirmed the San Diego County Water Authority’s strong credit ratings, which will help the Water Authority optimize its debt portfolio and minimize the cost of financing important water reliability projects.
When Imperial County officials broke ground on the Red Hill Bay project in 2015, it was heralded as the beginning of a new era around the Salton Sea. State officials were beginning a long-awaited restoration project that was projected to be done in two years. The 400-acre site on the eastern edge of California’s largest lake was underwater not too long ago, but water transfer and more efficient irrigation in the valley have cut the flow of water into the lake.
