Just days before Christmas, Mayor Kevin Faulconer became the first mayor since Jerry Sanders in 2012 to appear before the 36-member board of the San Diego County Water Authority. The city is the largest member agency of the Water Authority with 10 board members.
Faulconer was there to dip a toe into the decade-long courtroom fight between the Water Authority and Los Angeles-based Metropolitan Water District of Southern California.
UC San Diego will send airborne scientists into huge offshore storms to deepen their understanding of ”atmospheric rivers,” the plumes of moisture that can bring nourishing rains, and flooding, to the West Coast.
The second of up to 12 winter weather reconnaissance flights is scheduled to take off from Travis Air Force Base near Sacramento on Tuesday, carrying researchers from NOAA and the Air Force. UCSD will add its own researchers to the trips in about a week.
The university is partnering with the government and military on the project, which is being run out of the UCSD’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
SAN DIEGO, CA, JAN 27, 2020 – The San Diego County Water Authority’s Board of Directors authorized work on the 2020 Urban Water Management Plan last week. The Board approved a contract with the firm Woodard & Curran to provide support services for preparation of the plan, which documents the region’s approach to ensuring a safe and reliable water supply.
Despite growing concerns of a below-average rainfall season, the city of Ontario revoked mandatory conservation measures this week, setting a 0% water conservation target with state regulators.
“We currently don’t have a water supply shortage. We have enough water so we reported that to the state,” Scott Burton, utilities general manager of the Ontario Municipal Utility Co., said during an interview on Thursday, Jan. 23.
The City Council approved the change from mandatory Stage 2 water conservation to voluntary conservation on Tuesday, Jan. 21.
Two California water agencies should not be allowed to charge a tribe for groundwater production, the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians said in a new lawsuit Friday.
The tribe claims that the Coachella Valley Water District and the Desert Water Agency unlawfully imposed a “replenishment assessment charge” against federal laws that reserve the groundwater for the tribe, according to a filing in California federal court.
The 2019 movie “Dark Waters” alerted the public to health hazards posed by perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS, also know as PFOA and PFOS) that contaminated water and groundwater around manufacturer DuPont’s facility in Parksburg, West Virginia. The chemicals have been linked to deaths, cancer and more–and they are pervasive, found in 97% of Americans tested, PBS reports, citing a U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination study in 2015.
The San Diego County Department of Environmental Health issued a General Rain Advisory to avoid water contact at all coastal beaches and bays due to recent rainfall, Jan. 21. Swimmers, surfers, and other water users are warned that rain brings urban runoff, which can cause bacteria levels to rise significantly in ocean and bay waters, especially near storm drains, creeks, rivers and lagoon outlets. Urban runoff may contain large amounts of bacteria from a variety of sources such as animal waste, soil and decomposing vegetation. Bacteria Levels can remain elevated after a rainstorm depending upon the intensity of the storm, volume of runoff and ocean conditions.
California’s 600 certified water quality testing labs will face strict new accreditation standards in the near future. While final hearings still need to take place on the draft regulations before adoption, the City of Escondido Water Quality Lab isn’t waiting. Escondido is working now to adopt the anticipated regulations.
Escondido is one of only two California labs already compliant with the draft regulations, which require more stringent quality controls.
Talk about the Salton Sea, its possible effects on the surrounding communities, and solutions is ofttimes heavy in emotion but lacking a grounding in fact and science.
Here are a few facts that are often missed:
The Salton Sea lake is going through the natural evolution of a landlocked body of water, with minimal inflow, located in an arid environment. These lakes turn into salty lakes (think Great Salt Lake) and eventually turn into a salt flat or playa (think Bonneville Salt Flat).
The Imperial Irrigation District board of directors voted this week to approve an option to sell 2,880 acres near Niland and Calipatria to a Moreno Valley-based developer for the construction of an “inland port.”
The board postponed action on the deal in December and called for more information and new terms, which IID staff presented before Tuesday’s vote. By a 4-1 vote, the board approved the amended deal, with President Norma Sierra Galindo as the lone vote in opposition.
