This region has made tremendous strides toward diversifying its water portfolio. In Riverside County, groundwater desalination is moving forward to take full advantage of all available sources of water. Plans for Water Banking, which will take Northern California water imported during wet years to restore local aquifers for use during dry years, are also progressing.
The Fallbrook Public Utility District’s intern program is designed to prepare potential future employees to fill jobs that open up due to the ‘silver tsunami’ or wave of retirements in the water industry.
Mary Maciel, a junior at Fallbrook High, is Fallbrook Public Utility District’s second paid summer intern. She spends four hours a day each Wednesday working with each department including public affairs, customer service, engineering, construction and maintenance, engineering, water and wastewater operations, and meter reading.
Nearly 275,000 customers in the Helix Water District area of East County will be looking at a small increase in their water rates starting in the fall. The average domestic customer using 21 units per bimonthly billing period will see a 2.9 percent increase — or $4.59. Average water users paying $156.35 every two months will see their bills grow to $160.94 every two months.
Twenty-one units of water is equal to about 15,708 gallons of water every two months, where one unit is equal to 748 gallons.
Water. It’s a vital part of life. And it’s the California Water Service ‘ s, or Cal Water, job to make sure most of Bakersfield and parts of Kern County have clean safe water.
Kevin McCusker is a community affairs spokesman for Cal Water. He said, “From the meter box at the point of connection at their residence then it goes into their house where it’s used for any number of things. From indoor use, so they might use it for drinking and bathing and for outdoor use irrigation.”
A six-man crew from East County will be making a trek to help the Paradise Irrigation District in northern California. Four field employees from Helix Water District and two from Padre Dam Municipal Water District will leave Aug. 18 and spend five days in the Butte County town of Paradise, which was gutted last November when the Camp Fire scorched more than 150,000 acres and burned down nearly every building in town, about 19,000 structures. At least 85 people died with dozens more injured in the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in California history. As it recovers and rebuilds, safe drinking water is one of Paradise’s major challenges.
A hot spell will bring warm temperatures Tuesday throughout San Diego County, with even hotter temperatures expected in the deserts in the next few days. A high pressure system moving in from Texas will bring a rise in temperatures through Wednesday in coastal and inland valley areas and through Thursday in the county mountains and deserts, according to the National Weather Service. The weather service issued an excessive heat warning that will last from 11 a.m. Wednesday through 9 p.m. Thursday for desert areas. A heat advisory will also be in effect during that same time period for the inland valleys, including El Cajon, Santee and Escondido.
After more than a year of meetings with government officials from communities around the region, the city of San Diego has invited seven cities and unincorporated areas of the county to join forces and create a community choice energy program that would offer an alternative to San Diego Gas & Electric. The city made the offer earlier this month in a memo to city governments in Chula Vista, La Mesa, Santee, Encinitas, Carlsbad, Del Mar and Solana Beach as well as the County of San Diego. The memo included an attachment that contained a detailed look at how the area’s first foray into what is called Community Choice Aggregation, or CCA, would be established and how it would run.
Del Mar is optimistic that its rejection of “managed retreat” for adapting to sea-level rise will be accepted by the state Coastal Commission, City Councilman Dwight Worden said last week.
“Rejecting managed retreat is central to our plan, and having the coastal staff agree with our position is very significant and encouraging,” Worden said by email.
Managed retreat can take several forms. In some cases, a public agency will buy coastal structures and move or demolish them to leave open space for the advancing ocean.
Six talented elementary school students were recognized on August 7 by the Otay Water District Board of Directors as the winners of the District’s “Water is Life” Student Poster Contest. As one of the Otay Water District’s educational programs, the contest offers an opportunity for students to showcase their creativity while reflecting on the importance of using water efficiently in their daily lives. Students were encouraged to illustrate the value of water used both inside and outside the home as an informational poster intended to educate others. “We’re proud to offer students this opportunity to have fun and be creative, while at the same time thinking and learning about water conservation,” said Otay Water District General Manager Mark Watton.
The water beneath a large swath of Phoenix isn’t fit to drink. A plume of toxic chemicals has tainted the groundwater for decades, and it’s now at the center of a bitter fight over how the aquifer should be cleaned up and what should happen to the water in the future. At issue are questions about why the cleanup has proceeded slowly, which government agency should lead the effort, and whether the polluted water, which isn’t flowing to household faucets, is releasing chemicals into the air at levels that may pose health risks for people in the area.
