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Oceanside Receives Second $1.5M Grant to Aid $19.5M Smart Water Meter Project

/in , /by /NBC7 San Diegoby Sophia McCullough

The City of Oceanside received its second $1.5 million award from a federal agency to aid its new smart water meter installation project, the city announced.

The city is in phase two of a three-phase project to replace all 45,000 existing water meters with advanced metering infrastructure smart meters, confirmed Lindsay Leahy, Principal Engineer for the project.

In total, all three phases will cost an estimated $19.5 million — the cost of phase two is about $4.5 million, Leahy said.

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Contractors Get Reprieve in Effort to Block San Diego’s Pure Water Recycling System

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

SAN DIEGO — Legal wrangling over San Diego’s proposed Pure Water sewage recycling system continued Friday, when a judge gave a temporary reprieve to a group of local contractors fighting for the ability of non-union workers to help build the system.

Superior Court Judge Richard Strauss gave the contractors two weeks to strengthen their case, that construction of the system should be blocked because of a dispute over the use of non-union workers to build some of it.

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MWD Grants SDG&E Permanent Easement in Pala

/in , /by /Fallbrook Village Newsby Joe Naiman Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California granted San Diego Gas and Electric an permanent easement on MWD property in Pala.

The MWD board vote Feb. 11 approves the granting of the easement including conditions. SDG&E will obtain a 12-foot wide easement along the northern edge of the MWD property in the 39000 block of Pala Temecula Road.

MWD’s Pipeline 6 currently conveys water from Lake Skinner to Anza Road at De Portola Road in Temecula. That 7-mile segment is considered the northern reach of Pipeline 6; the southern reach would extend from Anza Road at De Portola Road to the San Diego County Water Authority delivery point approximately 6 miles south of the Riverside County line.

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Water Authority Board Votes to Dismiss Certain Legal Claims Against MWD

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

After securing more than $350 million in “Water Stewardship Rate” benefits for the San Diego region, the San Diego County Water Authority’s Board of Directors today voted to dismiss certain related claims against the Los Angeles-based Metropolitan Water District of Southern California.

The Water Authority Board’s decision represents a major step toward resolving the litigation, which has been pending for more than 10 years. The suits challenged water rates and charges imposed by MWD on San Diego County agencies and their ratepayers from 2010-2018. The Water Authority’s Board action will allow the parties to avoid a trial scheduled for June 2020 and clear the way for judgment to be entered in the older cases.

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Water Authority Board Honors Retiring Otay Water District GM Mark Watton

/in , /by /Water News Networkby Ed Joyce Quoted: San Diego County Water Authority

The San Diego County Water Authority’s Board of Directors on Thursday honored Otay Water District General Manager Mark Watton for 37 years of public service in the water industry.

The Board issued a proclamation congratulating Watton on “his long and distinguished service to San Diego County upon his upcoming retirement from the Otay Water District” and commended him “for a lifetime of service that has improved the quality of life in our region.”

After 15 years leading the water agency that serves Southeastern San Diego County, and nearly four decades representing the water interests of the county and state, Watton plans to retire in late March. He first served on the Water Authority’s Board of Directors in 1985 and was Board Chair from 1995 through 1996.

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Opinion: Is RMWD Doing Right by Customers?

/in , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby Gary Hurst

At this month’s board meeting, Ramona Municipal Water District (RMWD) approved “the Proposition 218 Notice for Untreated Water Pumping Rates.” Twenty-five years after the passage of Proposition 218, RMWD is finally admitting that its treated and untreated water systems are separate. As a result, RMWD calculated “(non)uniform pumping rates” for all water customers. The notice will be sent only to about 200 untreated water customers whose “pumping rates” RMWD proposes to increase. At the meeting, Matthew Prickett, among the largest water users, urged that the notice be delayed—not to avoid paying his fair share of such costs, but because the rates were not fairly calculated.

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Generating Sodium Hypochlorite On-Site in South San Diego

/in , /by /WaterWorld Magazine

SAN DIEGO, CA — Located in southern San Diego County, the Otay Water Treatment Plant, with a capacity of 34 million gallons per day provides drinking water to an estimated 100,000 customers. The plant is operated by the City of San Diego and located less than two miles from the United States – Mexico border, north of Tijuana. Despite being 15 miles from the Pacific Ocean, the arid region is considered part of the Colorado Desert and receives an average of only ten inches of rain each year.

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California Natural Resources Agency Lays Out Aggressive Salton Sea Mitigation Goals

/in , /by /Desert Sun (Palm Springs, Calif.)by Mark Olalde

The California Natural Resources Agency this week released its Salton Sea Management Program annual report, which trumpeted the first completed dust suppression project and set ambitious goals for upcoming mitigation efforts.

The report lays out an aggressive target of 3,800 acres on which the agency hopes to complete efforts to tamp down dust by the end of 2020 to catch up with its long-term benchmarks.

“We’re well-positioned and have identified a suite of projects that will help us accomplish that goal by the end of this year,” said Arturo Delgado, the agency’s assistant secretary for Salton Sea policy.

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Carlsbad Flower Fields Prepped for Spring’s Arrival

/in , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby Carolina Gusman

The March through May wonderment that we know as The Flower Fields at Carlsbad Ranch will once again explode with tissue-like petals of Tecolote ranunculus, Mother Nature’s sign that spring is on the way.

Seven million flowers — in hues of red, purple, orange, gold, rose, pink and white — will fill row upon row of the more than 50 acres of hillside that overlooks the Pacific Ocean.

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California Fails to Test 1.4 Million Children for Potential Lead Poisoning

/in , /by /CBS 8by Marcella Lee

A recent report by the California State Auditor revealed lead poisoning remains a big threat to children. It said California is failing when it comes to testing children who are most at risk.

Lead poisoning is known as the silent epidemic. There are typically no symptoms and it can cause irreversible damage to a child’s developing brain.

A startling number of kids are slipping through the cracks when it comes to testing, according to statistics released in the report.

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