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County Receives State Grant to Control Smelly, Invasive Weed

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

San Diego County has received a two-year grant of $53,966 from the state Department of Food and Agriculture to contain an invasive weed species, county officials announced Wednesday. Ward’s weed has been found in Carlsbad, Del Mar, Otay Mesa and Camp Pendleton, in the only known infestations in North America, according to county officials. The weed is native to the Mediterranean and southwest Asia and threatens local fragile plant species and habitats by dispersing thousands of seeds.

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Local Leaders Meet With Feds About Tijuana Sewage Spills

/in , /by /Fox 5by Maria Arcega -Dunn

Local leaders and representatives of several federal agencies met Wednesday to look for a solution to the ongoing sewage spills contaminating the Tijuana River Valley and the shoreline from Imperial Beach to Coronado. Representatives from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Customs and Border Protection met with elected leaders from San Diego County, the Port of San Diego and the cities of San Diego, Coronado, Imperial Beach and Chula Vista.

 

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San Diego Grown Photo Contest Highlights Agriculture

/in , /by /Water News Network

More than 260 photos were submitted during May as part of the “San Diego Grown Photo Contest” highlighting how safe and reliable water supplies fuel the region’s thriving agriculture industry. The San Diego County Water Authority hosted the social media contest during Water Awareness Month. The contest highlights the significance of agriculture to the regional economy. As one of the nation’s top producers of avocados, ornamental trees and shrubs, flowers, succulents, lemons, and other agricultural products, San Diego County farms cover approximately 250,000 acres and generate $4.8 billion in total annual economic activity.

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Two North County Districts Contemplating Exit From The San Diego County Water Authority

/in , , /by /San Diego Union-Tribuneby J. Harry Jones Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

Two water districts in northern San Diego County are exploring the possibility of leaving the San Diego County Water Authority and buying their water instead from an agency in southern Riverside County, a move one district says could save it as much as $6 million annually. It is the first time in the Water Authority’s 75-year history that such a move has been considered by any of its 24 member agencies, officials say, and it likely would be challenged. Both the Rainbow Municipal Water District and the Fallbrook Public Utility Department have been discussing the move for several months. A lawyer for the Water Authority read a public statement at the authority’s most recent board meeting on May 23, making it public knowledge.

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OPINION: Hydropower Is A Clean Energy Source. Why Don’t California Lawmakers Grasp This?

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

The reality of climate change is properly framed in potentially apocalyptic terms. Without cleaner energy, the atmosphere will keep heating, and extreme weather will be more common, disruptive and deadly. Hence the need for an “all of the above” clean-energy strategy. Yet too many environmentalists oppose hydropower and nuclear power. These energy sources have their downsides — the impact on aquatic life and nuclear waste storage among them — but if climate change is an existential threat, opposing their use doesn’t make any sense.

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Environmentalists Say County Water Authority And City Of San Diego Are Violating Laws By Pumping Down Lake Hodges, Leaning Grebe Nests “High And Dry”

/in , /by /East County Magazineby Miriam Raftery Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

A coalition of environmental groups has sent an urgent request to the San Diego County Water Authority asking for an emergency directive to halt pumping of water from Lake Hodges which has left grebe nests with eggs “high and dry” for the third time this season. The lake is in the city of San Diego, which has advised ECM today that it is taking steps to address the problem. Grebes are famed for “dancing” across the water during mating system, drawing visitors for the spectacle. (View video of dancing grebes and a new video titled “Save the Grebe Chicks of Lake Hodges.”)

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Inspecting Steel Pipelines To Safeguard San Diego’s Water Systems

/in , , /by /Trenchless Technologyby Chris Garrett Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

One of the perks of working in trenchless technology is the ability to get outside and get your hands dirty while safeguarding our community’s infrastructure. That holds doubly true when working in sunny southern California in November. Over the course of 23 days, San Diego County Water Authority (SDCWA) worked with PICA USA to inspect six miles of steel pipeline and ensure its underground assets can be operated safely for years to come. The SDCWA owns and operates more than 310 miles of pipeline serving the San Diego region, conveying water to 24 member agencies. The WA’s pipeline network ranges in size from 39 in. to 120 in. and is comprised of a variety of materials, including PCCP, steel, RCCP and others.

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OPINION: San Diego Needs An Environmentalist Mayor To Avoid Becoming Los Angeles

/in , /by /Times of San Diegoby Colleen O'Connor

When did San Diego become so ugly? It’s a horrible question, but one that needs asking. How else might we stop the “Los Angelization” of our once beautiful “Camelot by the Bay?” Take a drive—any drive—or better still a walk or bike ride to see for yourself. It is not just the homeless—though the task of moving the tent cities and river bank and bridge encampments is part of the problem. Just last week, that became more obvious as the usually hidden homeless had to be hustled out of view for both the Padres home game and Rock ‘n Roll Marathon.

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In The Farthest Reaches Of North County, A Retired L.A. Anesthesiologist Is Growing Grapes

/in , , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby J. Harry Jones

Back in 2009, Rao R. Anne began buying land just below the northern slope of Palomar Mountain in northern San Diego County. The semi-retired Pasadena anesthesiologist was planning both his future and his return to a lifestyle he knew growing up as a boy on a vegetable farm in southern India. Anne’s Emerald Creek Winery now grows 120 acres of grapes on a 750-acre plot of land that bisects Temecula Creek west of state Route 79 about two miles from the Riverside County line.

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Larger Than Del Mar And Solana Beach Combined, The Ramona Grasslands Preserve Soon To Get Even Bigger

/in , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby J. Harry Jones

The Ramona Grasslands Preserve, one of the lesser-known gems of San Diego County, is poised to get a bit larger. The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday is expected to approve the purchase of a 123-acre parcel that will be added at the northern end of the preserve near the ridge line between Ramona and the San Pasqual Valley. The purchase will bring the total acreage of the preserve, with its panoramic vistas, to just over 3,600.

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