Bonsall resident Andy Vanderlaan will be the vice-chair of San Diego County’s Local Agency Formation Commission for the 2020 LAFCO board meetings.
Vanderlaan, who is the public member on the LAFCO board, was chosen as the LAFCO vice-chair Dec. 2. County Supervisor Dianne Jacob, who was LAFCO’s vice-chair for 2019, will be the 2020 chair.
With snowpack levels in the Sierra Nevada registering at 90% of normal Thursday and state reservoirs at record historic levels, the urban water supply picture for 2020 could hardly be any rosier.
Southern California water managers are trying to restrain their joy, not because of a picture-postcard mountain top, but for the bounty that will come in spring when the snow melts, sending pristine water into state reservoirs and more importantly, southward via the State Water Project aqueduct, a source that supplies 30% of Southern California’s drinking water.
The Helix Water District has launched two contests for high school students in the East County district’s service area and both contests have a payoff.
The 2020 High School Photo Contest “Water in Everyday Life” offers $150 to the winner, $100 for second place and $50 for third place in both color and black & white categories.
Plans to build an ocean desalination plant by West Basin Municipal Water District have been percolating for years.
The past year saw the completion of an Environmental Impact Report for a proposed facility in El Segundo that would generate 20 million gallons of freshwater daily from the salty ocean. Conservationists opposed to the technology say it’s too energy intensive, pollutes the air and water, and would sidetrack ongoing water recycling and replenishment goals. The district, meanwhile, says it’s a prudent measure to ensure water needs are met in times of droughts or emergencies.
The Fallbrook Public Utility District approved FPUD rates and other charges for calendar year 2020.
FPUD’s board vote 4-0, Dec. 9, with Don McDougal absent, adopted the 2020 rates and charges for water, recycled water and wastewater delivery and services. Water and wastewater rates will increase by 8% while the increase for recycled water will be 4.5%.
A proposed county ordinance that would implement California’s AB 551 is seen as benefiting local agriculture by recognizing its benefits, according to the San Diego County Farm Bureau.
CORONADO — The San Diego County Department of Environmental Health lifted a water contact closure Monday for the Coronado shoreline and beaches from Avenida Lunar through North Beach.
Water quality testing confirmed Tijuana River flows are no longer impacting those beaches, according to the Department of Environmental Health, which had placed water contact closure signs to alert Coronado beach-goers to sewage-contaminated flows from the Tijuana River.
Since 2007, as a result of agreements associated with the 2007 Colorado River Interim Guidelines, the Imperial Irrigation District has had the ability to store conserved water with the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California.
LA MESA — It will cost more next year to fish, rent boats and camp at Lake Jennings Park, the reservoir and outdoors destination in Lakeside overseen by the Helix Water District.
The hikes were approved unanimously by the Helix Water District board and will become effective Jan. 1.
The daily and annual entrance fees to the lake will remain the same ($2 and $50, respectively) but costs for fishing will be bumped from $9 to $10 for adults, $8 to $9 for seniors and $4 to $5 for children 8 to 15.
The City of San Diego’s Public Utilities Department last week took a major step toward completing an innovative project to improve water quality in Lake Hodges. A newly installed oxygenation system, designed by city engineers, will introduce highly oxygenated water to the bottom of the reservoir to reduce the accumulation of excess nutrients and harmful algae growth.
