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Residents Fear Planned Hydroelectric Dam Project Could Spark Wildfires

/in , /by /NBC 4 (Los Angeles)by Sebastian Echeverry

Some residents in the Southern California city of Lake Elsinore fear power lines from a proposed $2 billion hydro electric dam project could ignite a brush fire. Residents are worried electrical towers and power lines could impact the area as part of the Lake Elsinore Advanced Pump Storage Dam project. “In the last two years, there have been two wildfires that have burned in the location of the proposed transmission line locations,” said Joe Folmar, who heads up a group of residents who oppose the project. “The Wildomar fire in 2017 and the Holy Fire in 2018 are the two fires, both of which required mandatory evacuations.”

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Cities, County Looking To Team Up On Public Alternative To SDG&E

/in , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby Joshua Emerson Smith Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

Elected officials throughout the San Diego region are ramping up efforts to form a public alternative to San Diego Gas & Electric, with the city of San Diego leading the way and even the county Board of Supervisors now looking at signing up. California’s three large investor-owned utilities have since 2010 seen more than 8 million customers defect to so-called community choice aggregation programs, from Humboldt to Los Angeles to Solana Beach. However, SDG&E is now facing the largest displacement of a utility’s customer base in the state — raising question about everything from grid reliability to whether the public alternative can deliver more renewable energy as promised.

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Water Transfer Between Reservoirs Set To Generate Cost Savings For South Bay Customers

/in , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby David Hernandez Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

The water gushed from a valve near the base of the Loveland Reservoir’s dam at 146,300 gallons per minute, cascading into the Sweetwater River below. The impressive sight near Alpine — which occurred, purposely, at 10:30 a.m. on Feb. 15 — marked the start of an ongoing transfer of water from the Loveland Reservoir to the Sweetwater Reservoir, where the water will be treated by the Sweetwater Authority and later supplied to the water agency’s customers in National City, Chula Vista and Bonita.

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Environment Report: The Vision For A San Diego Green New Deal

/in , /by /The Voice of San Diegoby Ry Rivard

Local environmental activists, hoping to catch a wave of national attention on a so-called Green New Deal in Congress, are starting to rally for a San Diego version of the plan. The nonprofit Climate Action Campaign rolled out the idea of a “San Diego Green New Deal” last week alongside an annual report that rated the various plans to fight climate change already adopted by local governments.

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Rain Barrels Work With Long Beach Sustainability Efforts

/in , /by /The Grunion (Long Beach)by Gary Metzker

For the next 75 days, Cindy Berglund will be traveling around Southern California in her motor home, lugging rain barrels with her. Last weekend, her company, Rain Barrels International, joined with the city’s Office of Sustainability to offer a free class on rainwater harvesting. More than 80 people signed up in advance for the class at Recreation Park but the presentation ended up being to a standing room only crowd.

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‘The Great Flood Of 1916’: Could History Repeat Itself At The Sweetwater Dam?

/in , /by /10 News (San Diego)by Jermaine Ong

The heavy rainfall of early 2019 has been a welcome sight for many in San Diego County hoping for an improvement in California’s drought conditions. However, with that rainfall comes some concern about the structural integrity of county dams and the potential for catastrophic flooding on par with a devastating event that happened over 100 years ago in the South Bay.

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In Case You Missed It: San Diego Weekend News Digest For Saturday, Feb. 23

/in , /by /NBC San Diego

To help make sure you stay informed on the most shared and talked about stories in San Diego County, each Saturday we’ll revisit five stories from the previous week and capsulize them in this digest with the most recent updates. A report released this week confirms that most of California is no longer in drought thanks to a series of winter storms that have walloped the state in February. San Diego County is part of the 33 percent of the state that remains in the abnormally dry category but it is a stark improvement from three months ago, when the entire state was in that category.

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San Diego Water Authority Head Retires After More Than Two Decades

/in , /by /The Bond Buyer (New York, NY)by Keeley Webster Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

The San Diego County Water Authority’s long-time general manager, Maureen Stapleton, informed the agency’s board this week that she will be retiring. Sandy Kerl, who has been the authority’s deputy general manager since 2009, will serve as acting general manager, while the 24-member water wholesaler conducts a search.

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San Diego County’s Long-Time Water Chief Retires

/in , /by /KPBS (San Diego)by Erik Anderson Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

The San Diego County Water Authority’s General Manager notified the region’s water board on Wednesday that she is retiring. Maureen Stapleton has held the top job at the agency for more than two decades. She led the Water Authority through the complicated settlement negotiations surrounding the Colorado River. That deal cleared the way for a huge water transfer with the Imperial Valley that provides a significant chunk of local drinking water. Stapleton also encouraged projects like the Carlsbad Desalination plant as a way to diversify the region’s water supply.

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Water World Shakeups

/in , /by /The Voice of San Diegoby Sara Libby Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

The longtime head of the San Diego County Water Authority announced Wednesday she is retiring after 23 years. We profiled Maureen Stapleton, the agency’s general manager, last year. She helped the region secure its own supplies of water, making her a respected civic leader. But amid a water war she helped launch and the bitter, personal disputes it’s set off, it became an open question whether Stapleton would be able to end her career on a good note. Last year, one of the Water Authority’s board members said an intoxicated Stapleton came up to him at an industry event and accused him of sleeping with an employee at a rival water agency. There’s no evidence such an affair happened.

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