While California recovers from the worst drought in state history, a myriad of impacts resulting from climate change threaten Southern California’s imported water supply. As a shadow of drought hangs over the region, this documentary explores the dire consequences of inaction that lie ahead.
Chris Baron purchased a home on Mt. Helix in 2007. The house sat on a half-acre of land, so he would have a rather large canvas to work with when it came to landscaping. He had some native plants early on and eventually bought some fruit trees. He wanted to plant more trees, but watering was expensive. To make matters worse, the state was in the midst of the 2012-2017 drought. In order to increase his orchard, he would have to think creatively. With the help of a friend who had some experience, he stepped into the soggy realm of rainwater collection.
Olivenhain Municipal Water District (OMWD) was recognized late last month as the medium-sized Agency of the Year by the WaterReuse Association of California. The award honors OMWD’s development of local and regional recycled water resources that conserve potable water, as well as its leadership and its outreach to legislators, regulators, and large irrigators. OMWD was previously recognized by the WaterReuse Association in 2005 as the small-sized Agency of the Year for having significantly expanded its recycled water distribution system. That system is currently generating 14 percent of the district’s demands with recycled water.
An increasing number of solutions to California and Arizona’s long term water problems now involve Mexico. Some of the ideas are seemingly far-fetched, like a pipeline to bring water from the Gulf of California to the Salton Sea in Imperial County. Some are already happening, like Mexico agreeing to reduce its water use in the event of a Colorado River shortage.After decades of warnings, officials who rely on the Colorado River which provides water to 40 million Americans and Mexicans have begun to reckon with the long-known fact that cities and farms are expecting to receive more water from the river than the river usually holds.
“Whiskey’s for drinking and water’s for fighting,” a quote frequently if probably erroneously attributed to Mark Twain, is as true a statement today as it was during Twain’s time in the 19th and early 20th centuries. And, for the past 20 years, there certainly has been plenty of fighting going on over the amount of water that can be sustainably withdrawn from a water basin underneath the Mojave Desert. Cadiz, a Mojave land owner, has proposed, and continues to propose, to pump water and lots of it from the Mojave aquifer and sell it to water districts hundreds of miles away, at a profit, potentially destroying the Mojave Desert in the process.
Despite its designation as a desert, the Coachella Valley is blessed with water. The very names associated with the most prominent places and businesses in the desert, such as the Oasis Hotel, Mineral Springs Hotel, Deep Well, Indian Wells, Palm Springs, Snow Creek, and Tahquitz River Estates, all conjure up pretty images of water. But the early story of desert water is more utilitarian than picturesque: it quite literally can be seen as a history of ditches.
Back in the early 1990s — near the start of my career at San Diego City Hall — the San Diego County Water Authority launched a historic effort to sustain the region’s economy and quality of life by diversifying our water supplies so that we didn’t depend on one source for 95 percent of our water. That effort took many forms, many billions of dollars and more than two decades — but it paid off in spades. Even though we are at the literal end of the pipeline, today we have among the most diversified and secure water supply systems anywhere.
Removing grass can generate rebates of at least $2 per square foot for San Diego residents under new enhanced incentives that started this month. As of April 1, the Metropolitan Water District is offering $2 per square foot for every square foot of grass removed from yards and replaced with sustainable landscaping. Rebates may vary by water agency, but an online incentive calculator identifies the current rebate amounts. To increase participation, MWD also updated program rules. The rules are listed at the application site. All San Diego County residents are eligible for the $2 rebate.
I agree with the March 29 editorial that projects to cover the shrinking Salton Sea’s exposed shoreline are desperately needed to prevent an environmental and public health crisis.In the recent farm bill, I secured provisions that made the Salton Sea eligible for Department of Agriculture conservation funding for the first time. We’re now working with Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue to make additional funds available as quickly as possible to support conservation efforts at the Salton Sea. Addressing the Salton Sea’s shoreline problems is only one step needed to improve environmental conditions for Imperial County residents.
Officials met in Imperial Beach Friday to discuss the sewage pollution that continues to plague South Bay shorelines — shuttering beaches more than 100 days every year. The event was billed as an “inaugural dialogue,” which in the future will include a host of other binational issues, including climate change and commerce. Assemblyman Todd Gloria (D-San Diego) and others met on Friday with Baja California officials to discuss future collaboration on how to address Tijuana’s lack of wastewater infrastructure and the potential for California to help with funding. “It’s a statewide concern elevated at the highest levels of state government,” Gloria told a crowd of concerned residents and elected officials, largely from Imperial Beach and Coronado.
