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San Diego Company Awarded EPA Grant To Develop Water Quality Testing Tech

/in , , /by /Times of San Diegoby Debbie L. Sklar

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced Friday that it awarded a $100,000 contract to a San Diego-based technology company to develop technology to monitor water quality. The grant, awarded to 2W iTech LLC, is one of nearly two dozen awarded by the EPA through its Small Business Innovation Research program. The EPA awarded grants worth a combined $2.3 million to 21 companies across the country to develop technologies to improve environmental and human health, monitor air and water quality and clean contaminated areas. With its grant, 2W iTech will develop a low-cost method to identify trace amounts of perfluoroalkyl substances in water at a rate as small as 10 parts per trillion.

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Five Most Fascinating L.A. Dams, Where Disasters Struck And Catastrophes Were Averted

/in , /by /KCETby Sandi Hemmerlein

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, there was one surefire way for man to conquer nature in Southern California. Build a dam. With dams, water agencies could control the flow of raging rivers, stockpile emergency water supplies and even create giant lakes out of natural dry (or mildly soggy) basins. But the water that was supposed to be held and controlled sometimes overcame some of these great civil engineering feats. And so, many of the stories of the Los Angeles Basin’s tragedy and triumph can be told through the histories of its dams – those that still exist and those that have been lost to failure.

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Rep. Scott Peters Pledges Town Hall On Climate Crisis Following Activist Pressure To Support Green New Deal

/in , /by /San Diego Union-Tribuneby Joshua Emerson Smith

Rep. Scott Peters of San Diego has agreed to hold a town hall meeting on climate issues following months of pressure by local activists on him and other members of Congress to support the Green New Deal. Peters’ announcement comes after Rep. Susan Davis, D-San Diego, cosponsored the hotly debated resolution in June, which calls on the federal government to zero out greenhouse emissions by 2030 and create jobs in renewable energy and other sectors. After initially brushing off calls to support the Green New Deal, the congresswoman surprised constituents and local climate groups when she announced her support for the resolution during a town hall-style event last month.

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San Diego’s Water Portfolio Approach ‘Model for California’

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

State officials Thursday toured San Diego County water infrastructure to get a first-hand look at the region’s successful water portfolio approach for supply diversification. California Natural Resources Agency Secretary Wade Crowfoot, Deputy Natural Resources Secretary Thomas Gibson, State Department of Food and Agriculture Secretary Karen Ross, and State Water Resources Board Chair E. Joaquin Esquivel were here to assess the region’s water projects as part of their new role in developing a water portfolio strategy for the state. “The region is proof that the portfolio approach works,” said Water Authority Board Chair Jim Madaffer. “The Water Authority and its 24 member agencies continue to develop local projects and explore opportunities that would benefit the region, the state, Mexico and the Southwest.”

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After 800,000-Gallon Spill, Chevron Site Is Still Leaking Oil

/in , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Piper McDaniel

On the same day Sen. Dianne Feinstein chastised Chevron Corp. for keeping an 800,000-gallon spill outside Bakersfield “under wraps,” California officials confirmed Thursday that the site was once again seeping a hazardous mix of oil and water. The new leakage occurred in a surface expression vent in the Cymric oil field, near the Kern County town of McKittrick, according to the state Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources. The vent is one of the locations where three previous leaks released about 800,000 gallons of oil and water.

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No Earthquake Damage To Dams

/in , , /by /Kern Valley Sun (Lake Isabella, Calif.)by Kathe Malouf

Shortly after two major earthquakes rocked buildings and rattled nerves in the Kern River Valley earlier this month, U.S. Army Corps of Engineer officials reported that it was “business as usual” at Isabella Dam, stating that the 6.4 magnitude earthquake on July 4 and 7.1 magnitude earthquake on July 5 did not cause any structural damage or safety concerns. Safety inspections on Isabella Dam were conducted immediately following the two earthquakes that were both centered outside of Ridgecrest with the use of both digital technology and on-the-ground inspections. Due to the ongoing construction that has been underway for the past three years at Isabella, Corps officials have been monitoring both Main and Auxiliary dams for seismic activity on a regular basis.

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LA’s Kern County Sludge Farm To Stop Receiving Free Bakersfield Water

/in , , /by /Bakersfield.comby Sam Morgen

It was a match made in heaven, at least for the residents of Los Angeles, but it will soon be coming to an end. For around 20 years, Los Angeles has shipped a large portion of “biosolids” from its toilets to fertilize a farm it owns just west of Bakersfield. Bakersfield, in return, has been providing an annual load of 18,000 acre-feet of free water to the farm, Green Acres, in a deal that was meant to benefit both cities. However, Bakersfield is choosing not to renew the water contract with LA, and the farm will have to find another source to irrigate its crops.

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Sweetwater Authority Decides To Post Audio Of Committee Meetings Online

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

In a move intended to provide access to discussions that happen at the committee level, the Sweetwater Authority has decided to post audio it records of those meetings online. The decision, announced this week by the South Bay water agency’s general manager in an email to the governing board, came after a July 11 report and subsequent critical editorial in The San Diego Union-Tribune about a policy change that did away with a requirement to keep minutes of meetings when board members on committees convene. Staff still planned to record audio. The revision to the policy on committees was criticized by Director Josie Calderon-Scott, who has represented the Bonita area since 2016, as well as some ratepayers.

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OPINION: All Too Rare: Public Agency Quickly Improves Transparency After Being Called Out

/in , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribune

When government agencies face sharp criticism for their decisions, it’s rare for them to immediately admit error. But that’s just what the Sweetwater Authority has done. On Friday, The San Diego Union-Tribune Editorial Board posted an editorial criticizing the water agency for no longer requiring that minutes be kept at meetings of two important committees where key decisions are made. We wrote that Sweetwater, which serves 190,000 people in National City, Bonita and parts of Chula Vista, should be more transparent, not less. We suggested Josie Calderon-Scott, the only board member who seemed worried about this decision, should record committee meetings and post the audio online.

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Cuyama Passes Pay-To-Pump Groundwater Sustainability Structure

/in , /by /Santa Maria Sunby Kasey Bubnash

Cuyama landowners will soon have to pay to pump groundwater, a decision that some say will place the burden of Cuyama’s dwindling water supply largely on farmers’ shoulders.

At a board of directors meeting on July 10, the Cuyama Basin Groundwater Sustainability Agency voted to approve a pay-to-pump funding structure, in which landowners are charged extraction fees each time they pump water from Cuyama’s groundwater basin. The pumping fees will fund the sustainability agency’s continued efforts to implement a groundwater sustainability plan as ordered by the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, a state law that requires critically overdrafted basins to submit plans for groundwater sustainability by Jan. 31, 2020.

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