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Bonita Museum To Display Winners Of Sweetwater Authority’s Photo Contest

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

The images capture water in everyday life. One shows the reflection of a mural in a puddle. Another captures rain drops on a sunroof. The photographs are among a dozen images taken by high school students in South Bay who won a contest put on by the Sweetwater Authority, which provides water for about 190,000 customers in National City, Bonita and western and central Chula Vista. The water district’s photo contest yielded more than 85 entrees, each of which included a short essay about the images and the tie-in to the the theme (“Water in Daily Life”). The contest included two categories: color and black and white.

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The Big Dig: Trampas Canyon Reservoir To Serve As South County’s Largest Water Project

/in , , /by /The Capistrano Dispatch (Orange County)by Fred Swegles

On 177 acres situated between San Clemente’s Talega community and Ortega Highway, mountainous earthworks are taking shape. Santa Margarita Water District, which provides water and sewer services to Mission Viejo, Rancho Santa Margarita, Coto de Caza, Las Flores, Ladera Ranch, Rancho Mission Viejo and Talega, is building a 1.6-billion-gallon reservoir. When completed in 2020, Trampas Canyon Reservoir, less than a half-mile north of Talega, will be able to store recycled wastewater collected from as many as five South Orange County treatment plants.

 

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Faulconer Budget Drawing Praise, But Council Democrats Want Closer Look

/in , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby John Gibbins

The proposed budget that Republican Mayor Kevin Faulconer unveiled Thursday is getting praise for avoiding major cuts to key programs, but City Council Democrats say they are eager to analyze the spending plan more closely. Faulconer is touting his $1.57 billion budget, which would cover the fiscal year that starts July 1, as a proposal that reflects priorities shared by residents across San Diego.

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‘Pure Water’ Dominates Infrastructure Spending In Faulconer’s 2020 Budget

/in , , /by /KPBS by Andrew Bowen

San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer unveiled his proposed budget for fiscal year 2020 on Thursday, saying it includes the highest infrastructure investment in the city’s history. The proposed $4.15 billion budget is a 19.5% increase over the city’s fiscal year 2019 budget. Despite the spending hike of nearly $700 million, Faulconer was still forced to make an estimated $15.3 million in cuts to various line items such as civilian staff in the police department and tree trimming services.

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OPINION: Garbage In, Garbage Out: Sacramento’s Salton Sea Restoration Plan In A Nutshell

/in , /by /The Desert Sun (Palm Springs)by Jeff Geraci

Throwing away millions of taxpayer dollars to re-purpose contaminated waste for creating toxic retention ponds disguised as “habitat,” in the middle of a desert waste sump, is not good logic. At its core, the ill-advised attempt to “restore” the Salton Sea is nothing short of environmental malpractice. It will inevitably fail at a very high cost to both wildlife and taxpayers, succeeding only in perpetuating a hazardous condition. Activists have been peddling the backward notion that Salton Sea is polluted and therefore needs to be “saved,” in large part because birds are threatened. The reality: Birds are in peril because the Salton Sea exists.

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Metropolitan Water District And Member Agencies Offering Upgraded Turf Replacement Program

/in , /by /California Water News Daily

With summer and its accompanying heat, you may be asking if you really want to pay for your increased water bill thanks to your thirsty lawn. Metropolitan Water District (MWD) of Southern California and its member agencies understand your concern and have returned with an upgraded rebate program for customers who remove grass from their yards and replace it with sustainable landscaping. The upgraded turf replacement program now offers $2 per square foot for the grass removal/ sustainable landscaping program which is double the rebate amount that was most recently offered. The last time MWD and its agencies offered a $2-per-square-foot incentive was during the drought of 2014/2015.

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City Returns $3.7 Million For Smart Water Meter Program

/in , , , /by /NBC 7 San Diegoby Dorian Hargrove and Consumer Bob

The City of San Diego has agreed to return more than $3.7 million to the city’s sewer fund which it took to pay for a citywide conversion to wireless water meters. The refund was made in hopes of ending a lawsuit filed by a ratepayer who said the city was charging the 8,500 sewage customers who do not use city water in order to help pay for the $67 million conversion to Advanced Metering Infrastructure, or AMI. The new meters will allow ratepayers to monitor their current water usage as well as make it easier to check for leaks. At the same time, the city’s water department would benefit in reducing meter reading errors and cut down on employee hours.

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Rep. Scott Peters Releases “Climate Playbook” As Alternative To Green New Deal

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

Rep. Scott Peters, D-San Diego, released Wednesday what he’s calling a “climate playbook” — a list of more than 50 pieces of legislation introduced by Democrats as well as Republicans since 2017. The congressman said revisiting bipartisan ideas to rein in climate change is a better use of time than focusing on the Green New Deal, a wide-ranging resolution aimed at wiping out greenhouse emissions by 2030 and creating new jobs.

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Five Years Later, Effects Of Colorado River Pulse Flow Still Linger

/in , , /by /KPBS (San Diego)by Luke Runyon

From inside a small airplane, tracing the Colorado River along the Arizona-California border, it’s easy to see how it happened. As the river bends and weaves through the American Southwest, its contents are slowly drained. Concrete canals send water to millions of people in Phoenix and Tucson, Los Angeles and San Diego. Farms, ribbons of green contrasted against the desert’s shades of brown, line the waterway. Further downstream, near Yuma, Arizona, the river splits into threads, like a frayed piece of yarn. A massive multi-state plumbing system sends its water to irrigate the hundreds of thousands of farm acres in southern California and Arizona, hubs for winter vegetables, alfalfa, cotton and cattle.

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The Water Shortage Is Over, So Can La Jolla Shower Like It’s 1999?

/in , , /by /La Jolla Lightby Corey Levitan

Last month, California emerged from drought conditions for the first time since December 11, 2011, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor, breaking a 376-week streak. In response, the California Department of Water Resources increased the amount of water delivered from its State Water Project storage system from 35 percent of contractor requests, which it announced in February, to 70 percent. So can La Jolla residents similarly up their water use? That’s the last thing they should do, experts say, and it explains why munipical drought restrictions — three-day weekly lawn-watering, recycled water for ornamental fountains, water served in restaurants only upon request — have not and will not be lifted.

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