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Heavy Rainfall Could Expedite Erosion Of San Diego’s Coastal, Inland Cliffs

/in , /by /10 News (San Diego)by Mark Saunders

Several recent storms to hit the San Diego County region could spell disaster for erosion prone areas of the coast and inland valleys. Rainfall running over coastal bluffs with a history of erosion could increase the likelihood of future erosions along our shores. Adam Young, a scientist with Scripps Institution of Oceanography San Diego, says an active season already could led to more crumbling of local cliff sides following heavy showers. “Pretty much whenever you have a new rainfall event, you’ll pretty much see a new landslide … The more rain we get, the more landslides,” Young says. “Every time you have a failure, stress distribution can change.”

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Coronado Considers Building $24 Million Sewage Treatment Plant

/in , , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby Gustavo Solis

Coronado wants to stop using drinkable water to irrigate its municipal golf course. And it is willing to spend millions to do that. On Tuesday, the City Council asked staff to move forward with a proposal to build a $24 million sewage treatment facility on the Coronado Golf Course. Between debt payments and maintenance and operating costs, the plant will operate at a deficit for at least the first 14 years of operation and won’t break even for 30 or 35 years.

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Oceanside Takes Control Of Water Destiny, Preparing To Purify Recycled Water

/in , /by /10 News (San Diego)by Amanda Brandeis

The City of Oceanside is taking control of its water destiny, investing in a facility to purify recycled water from homes. “It’s not being used, it’s really a waste. A lot of that water is going out to the ocean and it’s really a precious resource,” said Cari Dale, Water Utilities Director for the city. This Fall they’ll break ground on the Pure Water Oceanside facility, which will sit right next to the San Luis Rey Water Reclamation Facility. The process uses state-of-the-art water purification steps that replicate and accelerate nature’s natural recycling process. The facility will create between 3 and 5 million gallons per day of high-quality drinking water for the Oceanside community.

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Poseidon Optimism Grows For Desalination Plant But Several Hurdles Remain

/in , /by /The Orange County Registerby Martin Wisckol

Poseidon officials, who’ve spent 21 years working toward approval of a controversial desalination plant in Huntington Beach, had a figurative bounce in their step as they emerged from yet another permitting agency meeting Friday. The Regional Water Quality Control Board remains months away from voting on one of the final two permits needed by Poseidon. But the fact the board staff detailed a specific timeline for the board’s permit process — with a final vote penciled in for Oct. 25 — was seen by Poseidon Vice President Scott Maloni interpreted that as a signal that board geologists, engineers and administrators are confident they can work through outstanding issues.

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Water Authority Adapts To Overheated U.S. Construction Costs

/in , /by /Water News Network

Construction costs have surged across the nation over the past year as prices for materials used in construction have risen. At the same time, contractors are struggling to meet project deadlines due to a shortage of skilled workers, construction trade industry publication Constructive Dive reported on March 18. Those higher construction costs are impacting local agencies, including the San Diego County Water Authority. Agency staff briefed the Board of Directors’ Engineering and Operations Committee in mid-March on how those market changes are driving up costs of infrastructure and maintenance projects.

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Santa Barbara County Agencies Face ‘Water Debt’ For Purchases Made During Drought Years

/in , /by /Noozhawk (Santa Barbara)by Giana Magnoli

South Coast agencies purchased more than 27,000 acre-feet of supplemental water during four drought years to make up for lowered allocations from Lake Cachuma and the State Water Project, and for most of those deals, payback includes water in addition to money. Agencies’ so-called “water debt” means that when the city of Santa Barbara purchased from the Mojave Water Agency last year, for example, it was committing to paying back 1 acre-foot of water for every 4 acre-feet it purchased.

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Residents See Zero Progress At Salton Sea, But New Officials Say It’s Time To Turn The Page

/in , /by /The Desert Sun (Palm Springs)by Janet Wilson

Another group of top state officials visited the Salton Sea this week to promise that this time, things will be different and progress will be made to restore the fast-drying water body. The California Water Resources Control Board on Tuesday convened a required annual check-in meeting with a variety of state and local agencies on how and whether efforts to protect public health and restore wildlife habitat are progressing. They met at the lake’s North Shore Yacht Club community center to hear updates and to try to rally residents and experts. Some responded with guarded optimism, seeing Gov. Gavin Newsom’s appointment of top officials who are familiar with the area as a possible sign of long-awaited change.

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OPINION: Trump Administration Colorado River Drought Moves Threaten Life, Health At The Salton Sea

/in , /by /The Desert Sun (Palm Springs)by Barbara Boxer

As a former member of the U.S. Senate and chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, I was proud to help lead the charge to save the Salton Sea. In December, I was excited to learn that Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris and Congressman Raul Ruiz secured Farm Bill legislation that provides a pathway to federal Salton Sea funding. The federal government owns almost half of the Salton Sea, but has not lived up to its responsibility to stop the public health and environmental disaster unfolding there. This Farm Bill victory allows for a large, stable source of federal funding for the sea.

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San Diego Utilities Officials Finish Most, But Not All, Meter Reader Fixes

/in , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby Jeff McDonald

San Diego public utilities officials said Wednesday that they have implemented most recommendations made by the city auditor last year after thousands of customers were overbilled by faulty meter readers. Some key reforms still need to be implemented, the deputy chief operating officer told members of the city council’s audit committee, and others have yet to be validated by the city auditor. “Eighty percent of the recommendations we have completed, pending auditor review, which is a commitment we made back when the audit was released,” said Johnnie Perkins, the deputy COO tapped by Mayor Kevin Faulconer to oversee reforms at the public utilities department.

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Sierra Snowpack At 156% As Some CA Ski Resorts Get Over 550 Inches Of Snow This Season

/in , /by /KTLA 5 (Los Angeles)by Tracy Bloom

A very wet winter across California recently pulled the state out of drought for the first time in years, and it’s also been a boon for the Sierra snowpack, now at a staggering 156 percent above normal as of Wednesday. The latest figures show a marked improvement over this time last year, when the statewide average for the snowpack was about 40 percent of normal, according to the National Weather Service’s Hanford office. In fact, as the weather service noted in a tweet, the snowpack has reached 150 percent just eleven times in March since measurements began in 1950 — and only twice this century. The last time was in 2017.

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