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USS Midway: A History Of Sustainable Water Management

/in , /by /Water News Network Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

The USS Midway Museum, docked in San Diego, is the most popular naval warship museum in the United States and among the most visited museums in the country, with 1.4 million people annually coming aboard. Those visitors discover the Midway made its own fresh water while at sea, from the first day it was commissioned in 1945 until it was taken out of active service in 1992. But when this venerable aircraft carrier found new life as the USS Midway Museum in 2004, its relationship with water entered a new era as well.

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San Diego County Wasn’t Immune To Extreme Weather In July

/in , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby Robert Krier

San Diego County didn’t escape the extreme weather happening around the planet in July that produced massive fires above the Arctic Circle, a deadly heat wave in Japan, and a 124 degree day in Algeria believed to the highest temperature ever recorded in Africa. The county had it’s own set of remarkable temperatures that stressed both plants and people. The city of San Diego had its hottest July in a dozen years and its fifth hottest since 1874. The month was 5 degrees warmer than normal, and the 96 degrees recorded on July 6 was the third highest reading ever seen in July.

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The Common Thread In California’s Wildfires: Heat Like The State Has Never Seen

/in , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Rong-Gong Lin II and Ruben Vives

The northern Sacramento Valley was well on its way to recording the hottest July on record when the Carr fire swept into town Thursday. It was 113 degrees, and months of above-average temperatures had left the land bone-dry and ready to explode. Within a few hours, hundreds of structures were lost and six people killed.

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Satellite Image Captures The Unusual Warmth Of San Diego’s Coastal Waters

/in , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby Gary Robbins

Sea surface temperatures in Southern California — especially spots in San Diego like Solana Beach — have been unusually warm for weeks. The National Weather Service issued a computer graphic late Monday that shows where the hottest temperatures are being recorded (the areas in red.) “Water temperatures from lifeguards are 72 to 78F and this is shown in satellite imagery depicting much above normal readings (anomaly) in the California Bight,” the weather service said on Facebook.

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City Launches App To Help Customers Monitor Water Bills

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

Painful, inaccurate water bills have eroded trust in the City of San Diego’s Public Utilities Department. However, the city says it is committed to earning that trust back, vowing to fix major problems. They’ve launched a tool customers can use immediately to take control of their water usage and bills.

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High Water Bills: San Diego City Council Committee Reviews Performance Audit

/in , /by /CBS8 (San Diego)by Ashley Jacobs

The recent audit on the city’s sky-high water bills was under review Monday. The San Diego City Council’s audit committee held a special meeting to look into it after more than 2,700 incorrect water bills were sent out last year. In that special meeting Monday morning, the committee reviewed performance audits on the Public Utilities Department’s water billing operations. This all comes months after hundreds of San Diego residents were over charged for water usage.

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San Diego Water Rates Increase 2 Percent This Week, Part Of Larger Multi-Year Spike

/in , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby David Garrick

Water rates in San Diego will increase just over 2 percent on Wednesday, part of a five-step incremental spike over four years that will amount to a compounded rate hike of 35 percent. The rate increase comes one week after an audit found 2,750 individual water bills last year were incorrect and had to be readjusted because of errors by meter readers.

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OPINION: In Response: Water Cost Story Missed Key Points

/in , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby Mark Muir Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

Re “County water move has its costs” (July 1): The San Diego Union-Tribune addressed an important regional question on whether the San Diego County Water Authority’s decades-long strategy to create a reliable portfolio of water supplies is worth the cost. Unfortunately, the story omitted clear-cut evidence that the region’s supply reliability strategy is an unqualified success: Our independent water supplies from the Colorado River are both less expensive and more reliable than supplies from the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, which have been cut twice in the past decade by drought.

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OPINION: Don’t Just Blame The Meter Readers For San Diego’s Water Billing Scandal

/in , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribune

A new report from City Auditor Eduardo Luna about erroneous water bills serves as a clear indictment of the city’s Public Utilities Department. It detailed how 2,750 water bills sent to residents in 2017 were incorrect, often by hundreds of dollars, and that the problem stemmed from mistakes made by the city’s 36 meter readers — 10 of whom were to blame for 71 percent of the errors. Luna’s audit noted that just in the month of December, one meter reader was responsible for about 330 mistakes. That person no longer works for the city, which is a relief.

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San Diego Water Bill Audit Finds Thousands Of Errors, Meter Readers Can Bypass Accuracy Checks

/in , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby Bradley J. Fikes

A major, months-long audit of the city’s utilities department, sparked by a public outcry over high water bills, concluded that 2,750 water bills sent to San Diego residents last year were incorrect and had to be readjusted while discovering that 10 meter readers accounted for 71 percent of the errors. The city audit released Thursday also found that meter readers figured out how to bypass an accuracy check required when meters are read and the city’s Public Utilities Department doesn’t measure the performance of its 36 meter readers.

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