You are now in Home Headline Media Coverage San Diego County category.

Central Basin Is Now Charging Even Noncustomers In Southeast LA County

/in , , /by /Whittier Daily News by Mike Sprague

A regional water district on Wednesday approved the equivalent of a $2 annual fee on every household in the southeast area of Los Angeles County — including areas that don’t buy its water.

Kevin Hunt, general manager for Central Basin Municipal Water District, said his agency needs the $600,000-plus the fee will raise to balance its $10 million budget. The water wholesaler has significant money problems because of decreasing water sales.

Central Basin has long been under fire for “poor leadership, violating state law and spending money inappropriately.” as reported in a 2015 state audit.

Full Story

California Farmers Are Planting Solar Panels As Water Supplies Dry Up

/in , , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Sammy Roth

Jon Reiter banked the four-seat Cessna aircraft hard to the right, angling to get a better look at the solar panels glinting in the afternoon sun far below. The silvery panels looked like an interloper amid a patchwork landscape of lush almond groves, barren brown dirt and saltbush scrub, framed by the blue-green strip of the California Aqueduct bringing water from the north. Reiter, a renewable energy developer and farmer, built these solar panels and is working to add a lot more to the San Joaquin Valley landscape.

Full Story

Is That Smell The Salton Sea? Humid Weather Fostering Stinky Air Around Palm Springs

/in , , /by /Desert Sun (Palm Springs)by Colin Atagi

There’s an unmistakable smell in the air. One that creeps into the Coachella Valley during the hot, sticky days of summer.

The sulfuric odor typically shows up when the mercury and humidity are high, and levels of hydrogen sulfide spike in the Salton Sea.

A South Coast Air Quality Management District spokeswoman on Wednesday said the agency hadn’t received any reports of smelly air, and in fact, air quality across Southern California — including Riverside County — was “moderate.” The district, located in Diamond Bar, issues alerts when air pollutants are at levels that could be harmful to humans.

Full Story

Trump Revived The Cadiz Water Project. Now California Has Added A New Hurdle

/in , , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Phil Willion

A controversial Mojave Desert water project, which has emerged as a major environmental flashpoint between California and the Trump administration, cannot go forward without approval by the State Lands Commission under a new law signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday.

The restriction places a major obstacle to Cadiz Inc.’s long-standing plans to pump desert groundwater and sell it to urban Southern California.

Full Story

San Diego County Students Inspire Water Conservation Through Art

/in , , /by /Water News Network

Three talented fourth grade students in north San Diego County will have their winning drawings featured in the 2020 “Be Water Smart” calendar produced by the Vallecitos Water District. The students were honored by the District’s Board of Directors at its July meeting.

To develop and promote water conservation awareness from an early age, the District holds a calendar contest available to all fourth graders in its service area. The top three drawings go on to represent the District in the regional North County Water Agency calendar for the following year.

Full Story

Study To Explore New Regional Water Conveyance System

/in , , /by /Water News Network

The San Diego County Water Authority’s Board of Directors last week approved a contract to study the viability of a new regional water conveyance system that would deliver water from the Colorado River to San Diego County and provide multiple benefits across the Southwest. The $1.9 million contract was awarded to Black & Veatch Corporation for a two-phase study. The engineering firm conducted similar studies for the Water Authority dating back to 1996 but looked at “single use” in those studies.

Full Story

Research Evaluates What San Diego And Tijuana Will Do As A Region In Case Of A Strong Earthquake

/in , /by /San Diego Union-Tribuneby Alexandra Mendoza

The impact of an earthquake will not respect borders. Much less, a quake that will be registered in the fault of the Rose Canyon. For the past five years, researchers and authorities on both sides of the border have been preparing a seismic and damage scenario for the San Diego-Tijuana region, the findings of which will be presented to the population next March. The purpose is to know what would happen if there is an earthquake of magnitude 6.9 in this fault that passes through the center of the city of San Diego and is projected to Tijuana.

Full Story

San Bernardino Valley Water Conservation District Breaks 30-Year Record For Groundwater Storage, At 20 Billion Gallons And Counting

/in , , /by /Inland Empire Community News (Colton, Calif.)

Like money in the bank, local groundwater aquifers have seen record-breaking deposits this year with a staggering 20 billion gallons saved so far and another two months still left in the water year, the San Bernardino Valley Water Conservation District announced today. More than 61,000 acre-feet of snowmelt and rainfall has been diverted from Mill Creek and the Santa Ana River by the District and recharged into the groundwater basin for future use by those who pump water from the basin.  Imported water was also used to help supplement the amount of water stored.

Full Story

As Southwest Water Managers Grapple With Climate Change, Can A ‘Grand Bargain’ Work?

/in , , /by /Arizona Public Media by Luke Runyon, KUNC, and Bret Jaspers, KJZZ

Water managers on the Colorado River are facing a unique moment. With a temporary fix to the river’s scarcity problem recently completed, talk has begun to turn toward future agreements to manage the water source for 40 million people in the southwestern U.S.

Climate change, growing urban populations and fragile rural economies are top of mind. Some within the basin see a window of opportunity to argue for big, bold actions to find balance in the watershed. Others say the best path forward is to take small, incremental steps toward lofty goals, a method Colorado River managers say has worked well for them for decades.

Full Story

OPINION: Environmental Laws Don’t Impede Development

/in , /by /Voice of San Diegoby JP Theberg

San Diego County, like the rest of California, is facing an affordable housing crisis of unprecedented proportions. But in the push to build more housing, officials should be careful not to throw out laws that have long served the state and our region. Developers and polluters have for years pointed to the California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA, as an impediment to development and industry. Instead of cleaning up their act to serve the people of California, they continue to push the same misinformation intended to weaken one of California’s most successful environmental laws.

Full Story