Last year, Downtown Los Angeles got exactly 4.72 inches of rain. That’s measly! It’s smaller than the screen on an iPhone. Less than the length of your sunglasses. Shorter than an average adult hand. And it’s 32 percent of what we normally get. That makes October 1, 2017 through September 30, 2018 the third driest year since record-keeping began way back in 1877. Only 2001-2002 and 2006-2007 were worse.
Gardening has a vocabulary all its own, especially when it comes to the materials we use for planting and growing plants: dirt, soil, potting mix, planter mix, mulch, compost and many more. It can be pretty confusing, even for experienced green thumbs. To help, here’s a breakdown of some of the most common terms you’ll encounter along your gardening odysseys: Dirt is what you sweep out of your house or clean off the soles of your shoes. Soil is a complex mixture of minerals, organic matter (see definition below), water, air, living organisms including tiny insects and animals, bacteria, fungi, etc.
While the San Diego County Water Authority halts work on a pilot program for a desalination plant at Camp Pendleton, both the Claude “Bud” Lewis Desalination Plant in Carlsbad, and the North City Water Reclamation Plant in UTC are backfilling the region’s needs. For the past three years, the Water Authority has been planning a small-scale pilot facility to assess seawater intake and treatment technologies at Camp Pendleton with funding from state and federal agencies. The resulting plant would be the first in California to investigate an innovative subsurface intake technology for ocean water.
In Northern San Diego County approximately 7 miles inland from the Pacific Ocean lies the town of Vista, Calif. Vista was founded in 1882 and quickly grew as its Mediterranean climate proved to be excellent for agricultural homesteaders. During the 1920s, Vista was referred to as the avocado capital of the world. But the town faced many hurdles during its growth including severe drought, a problem that Vista, like the rest of California, faces today. As the area increased in population, the Vista Irrigation District was created in 1923 to ensure a reliable source of water for the naturally arid region.
When I started my term as board chair of the San Diego County Water Authority in October 2016, California was mired in drought but the San Diego region had sufficient supplies regardless of the weather. Thankfully, just a few months later, epic rain and snow significantly improved water supply conditions statewide, but not before validating our long-term strategy to develop a drought-resilient portfolio of water resources that protect the region during dry times. In fact, we had enough water to store 100,000 acre-feet of water for the future – a testament to regional foresight, coordination, hard work and investments by ratepayers.
A massive water main break flooded numerous streets in North Park and left many vehicles partially submerged Thursday morning. San Diego water officials said a 24-inch transmission water main broke shortly before 7:30 a.m. in the 4100 block of Idaho Street, near Polk Avenue and the North Park Community Park. Several San Diego water department crews were dispatched to various nearby areas to repair the break. Water flow was shut off by 10 a.m. Officials said repairs were expected to continue through the evening.
Two Ramona Municipal Water District (RMWD) recycled water customers can expect to pay up to $1,013 per acre foot for recycled water, an increase from $35 per acre foot in their previous 10-year agreement. RMWD directors gave their unanimous approval during two separate votes at a special meeting Sept. 28 in which RMWD’s price for recycled water was set at a rate of $1,013 per acre foot for San Diego Country Estates Association (SDCEA) and Spangler Peak Ranch. However, SDCEA can access a $450 credit to lower the cost to $563 per acre foot and terms of the deal have not been finalized.
It was the autumn of 1858, and Abraham Lincoln was on the ballot as a candidate for the U.S. Senate from Illinois. On the national front, the Compromise of 1850 divided the nation into free and slave states and was brewing political tensions during the years leading up to the Civil War. But off the coast of California — less than a decade into statehood — a different kind of storm was approaching. Tuesday, Oct. 2, marked 160 years since the San Diego Hurricane of 1858, the only hurricane on record to make landfall on the western coast of the United States. Newspaper clippings from the time and academic research since offer a glimpse into how the skies turned above the typically sunny shores of Southern California.
Despite interest from state’s Department of Water Resources and a $1.4 million grant from the Bureau of Reclamation, the San Diego County Water Authority’s $2.5 million intake testing program for the proposed Camp Pendleton Seawater Desal Project has apparently been cancelled. Last week, in a letter to the State Lands Commission, the Water Authority’s general manager Maureen Stapleton said that the Authority intended to “withdraw our application for State lands Commission approval due to the extraordinary permitting challenges created by State Lands Commission staff, that go above and beyond the statutory and regulatory requirements for this project.”
In 2014 California enacted the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, which provides the framework for local water management agencies to develop and implement groundwater sustainability plans in order to sustainably manage the state’s groundwater within 20 years. This legislation was California’s first ever attempt to sustainably manage groundwater resources, a long overdue effort given that the state relies on groundwater for 40 percent of its total water supply in an average year. The Sustainable Groundwater Management Act aims to ensure that groundwater basins are being managed in a way that achieves “sustainable yield”—the maximum quantity of water that can be withdrawn annually from a groundwater supply without causing an “undesirable result.”
The Water News Network is San Diego County’s source for water news and information.
