The two men who helped Calgary get a replacement pipe to help repair the city’s ruptured feeder main were honoured over the weekend.
When the pipe broke in June, city officials put out an international call for replacements. On Sunday, City of Calgary worker Toby Weickert and San Diego County Water Authority worker Martin Coghill both received white hats for their efforts.
Try driving up Morena Boulevard in Mission Valley, or north through Bay Park and Clairemont, and chances are you’ll be bottlenecked by an army of orange traffic cones demarking a huge construction project that will consume northern San Diego for years to come.
The city of San Diego is currently building a massive wastewater-to-drinking water recycling system – but it must tear up the streets to do it. The new pipe route tunnels from Morena Pump Station near the San Diego International Airport, then 10 miles north to University City and then another 8 miles to Miramar Reservoir, the final stop for all our transformed toilet water.
The Santa Fe Irrigation District and San Dieguito Water District have filed a lawsuit against the City of San Diego over alleged “negligent” maintenance on the Lake Hodges Dam. The aging dam underwent emergency repairs in 2022 and the districts’ suit seeks financial damages of $21 million due to breach of contract and resulting loss of access to local water which they say has forced them to raise water rates, negatively impacting customers.
The lawsuit also alleges a violation of California’s Public Records Act, according to a press release issued by the district.
Gondek white-hatted over 100 guests from out of town, as well as formally white-hatting Toby Weickert, and Martin Coghill who arranged the delivery of the feeder main pipe from San Diego to Calgary.
The Uptown Car Wash in Hillcrest has been a haven for the budget shopper. The company offers a wash for less than $10, while a full detail is more pricey. However, the costs for those services likely are increasing.
That’s because the San Diego County Water Authority this week raised water rates by 14%. The higher water bills are expected to begin in January for the county’s 23 agencies, including the City of San Diego, which has raised water bills 16% the past few years.
On July 25, the San Diego County Water Authority (CWA) Board of Directors voted for a 14% wholesale rate increase effective in 2025 for the wholesaler’s 23 local water agencies, to be followed by a 16.4% increase in 2026 plus 5.6% in 2027 (40.1 percent compounded).
The increase is part of an unstoppable trend in county water management caused by CWA’s high debts and declining water use, resulting in less revenue for paying those debts—over $2 billion worth.
Water rates in San Diego County won’t go up next year as sharply as some feared — but the county water authority’s efforts to keep rates low are becoming a significant threat to its credit rating.
A sharply divided water authority board voted Thursday to reduce next year’s rate increase from 18 percent to 14 percent, which eases pressure on local water agencies to raise rates on their customers.
San Diego’s main water seller OK’d a less-doomy price increase than the region was expecting, setting it at 14 percent on Thursday.
To make that work, the San Diego County Water Authority will have to find $2 million it can cut from its budget and delay some anti-earthquake-related upgrades to its biggest aqueducts. Those cuts save ratepayers from an anticipated 18 percent beginning January 1. But 14 percent is still the largest annual rate increase on the wholesale price of San Diego water since 2011, Water Authority records show.
Federal grant funds, a water transfer and budget cuts helped minimize wholesale water-rate increases for 2025 despite inflation and climate impacts that are pushing prices higher.
The San Diego County Water Authority’s Board of Directors on Thursday approved a total increase of 14% in wholesale water rates for next year, while directing a one-year delay on a $7 million capital project and $2 million in additional cuts to the agency’s operating budget.
The state of Baja California will get 200 liters of water per second from the San Diego County Water Authority to help Tijuana residents during the hot summer months.
The water will be delivered through an international line that crosses the border from San Diego to Tijuana.
