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Daily Business Report-June 29: Wholesale Water Rates Kept In Check For 2019

/in , /by /San Diego Metro Magazine Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

Wholesale water rates adopted Thursday by the San Diego County Water Authority Board of Directors include some of the smallest increases in the past 15 years due to successful litigation against the Los Angeles-based Metropolitan Water District of Southern California and strategic use of financial reserves, the agency said. They also highlight a historic shift in water costs: The Water Authority’s independent supplies from the 2003 Colorado River Quantification Settlement Agreement are now less expensive for the region than supplies from MWD, and that difference will grow in the years ahead.

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San Diego’s Biggest Infrastructure Need Isn’t Streets — It’s Storm Drains

/in , /by /KPBSby Andrew Bowen

Underneath San Diego streets lies a network of pipes and tunnels that most people never see. But when it rains, that network is busy carrying water out from neighborhoods and into the city’s rivers, bays and beaches. Much of that network is on the verge of collapse, and the city has nowhere near enough money to fix it. A report from the City Auditor’s Office released this month notes a staggering $459 million funding shortfall for stormwater infrastructure.

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New State Water Conservation Laws Set For 2019

/in , /by /The Coast News Group (Encinitas)by Steve Puterski Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

In less than six months, California will begin to enact new statewide water conservation laws. Senate Bill 606 and Assembly Bill 1668 call for new urban-efficiency standards for indoor and outdoor uses, water lost to leaks and appropriate variances. The bills will take effect in 2019, although there will a grace period before enforcement, according to Mario Remillard, water conservation specialist for the Carlsbad Municipal Water District. Additionally, water agencies are required to stay within their water budgets regardless of current drought conditions. However, the California State Water Board will not enforce these standards until November 2023.

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Coronado Mayor, Chief Of EPA Discuss Repeated Tijuana Sewage Spills

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

Coronado’s mayor flew to Oklahoma this week to talk with the head of the Environmental Protection Agency about possible solutions to the recurring Tijuana sewage spills that sully the San Diego County coastline. Mayor Richard Bailey and Administrator Scott Pruitt spoke one-on-one for about 20 minutes Tuesday during an annual meeting between leading environmental experts and regulators from Mexico, the United States and Canada. “We discussed possible next steps and (Pruitt) expressed a strong desire for some tangible progress in the very near future,” Mayor Richard Bailey said.

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Deferred Maintenance On City Storm Water System May Lead To Emergencies

/in , /by /FOX 5 San Diego

A city of San Diego analysis delivered to the City Council’s Audit Committee Wednesday found that Storm Water Division infrastructure faces the largest deferred maintenance backlog of any asset type in the city amid chronically insufficient funding. Continued deficits could lead to more emergencies and an inability to meet water quality requirements, Principal Senior Performance Auditor Andy Hanau told the committee. The Storm Water Division is projected to need $891 million to keep up with infrastructure needs and water quality standards over the next five years. Only $433 million in funding has been identified, however, leaving a gap of about $458 million.

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Nestlé Granted Three-Year Permit To Keep Piping Water Out Of California National Forest

/in , /by /The Desert Sun (Palm Springs)by Ian James

The U.S. Forest Service has granted Nestle a new three-year permit to continue operating its bottled water pipeline in the San Bernardino National Forest. The agency announced the decision Wednesday, saying the permit has been offered to the company “with measures to improve the watershed’s health” along Strawberry Creek. The Forest Service took up the matter in 2015 after a Desert Sun investigation revealed Nestlé was piping water out of the mountains under a permit that listed 1988 as the expiration date.

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Southern California’s Coastal Communities Could Lose 130 Feet Of Cliffs This Century As Sea Levels Rise

/in , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Rosanna Xia

It’s not just beaches and sand that are disappearing as the ocean pushes inland. Sea level rise is also eating away at California’s coastal cliffs. The question is by how much, as Californians have heavily developed and continue to build along the edge of the Pacific. Scientists are now one step closer to projecting how these bluffs will fare this century — and the outlook is sobering. In Southern California, cliffs could recede more than 130 feet by the year 2100 if the sea keeps rising, according to a new study led by the U.S. Geological Survey.

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Irvine Ranch Water District Adds Tesla Powerpacks, Estimates Annual Savings Of $500,000

/in , /by /Clean Technicaby Kyle Field

The Irvine Water District and Michelson Capital announced the completion of the nation’s largest behind-the-meter energy storage project at the Irvine Ranch Water District’s (IRWD) Michelson Water Recycling Plant. The new 2.5MW/15MWh installation is a part of a distributed network of 11 energy storage installations at the water district’s recycling and pumping facilities that together total 7MW/34MWh. The new installation will store power when it is cheap, which the facility can use during peak hours when power is more expensive.

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Environment Report: San Diego, Don’t Fear The Water Police

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

For weeks, there’s been a lot of misinformation on social media about a pair of new state laws that attempt to limit indoor water use in California. For most people, the laws don’t do much more than set a new daily goal for indoor water use of 55 gallons per person, starting in 2022. In San Diego, that goal will be pretty easy to meet. In fact, we probably already meet it. According to the city’s water department, the average person uses 60.3 gallons per day, a figure that includes all water used inside and outside.

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Algae Bloom Closes Diamond Valley Lake

/in , /by /NBC4 (Los Angeles)by Austin Green

All recreational activities at Diamond Valley Lake have been suspended indefinitely due to a large bloom of blue-green algae at the bottom of the lake, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California announced Thursday. Boating, fishing and hiking are just some of the activities suspended around the lake until the district determines it is safe to use again. The algae, called cyanobacteria, sometimes releases harmful cyanotoxins into the water, which in high concentrations can be poisonous when ingested.

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