In December 2015, during California’s most recent drought, Poseidon Water opened a seawater desalination facility in Carlsbad which has since produced over 22 billion gallons of high-quality, drought-proof drinking water for San Diego County. As a United States senator, much of my work included finding innovative solutions to address climate change which would reduce Californian’s pain in the face of predicted droughts. As such, I supported the Carlsbad project and it pleases me that such a huge majority of Californians support seawater desalination as well.

The Hepatitis A outbreak is an obvious public health emergency, but what is less obvious to some; it’s also an environmental one. As documented by the San Diego Regional Water Quality Board, many of the county’s waterways show fecal contamination and the presence of Hepatitis A. According to the board, human waste that originates from homeless encampments along creeks and rivers is a major source of the fecal contamination. Two San Diego City Council members recently wrote a joint letter expressing their concern about the effects of the outdoor camps on the San Diego River.

The San Diego County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to join the growing legal campaign to force the federal government to do more to stop sewage from spilling over the border from Tijuana that routinely fouls South Bay beaches. “Enough is enough,” Supervisor Greg Cox, whose district includes border region with Mexico, said in a statement. “We’ve exhausted all our efforts to resolve this terrible situation and it’s time we force those responsible to once and for all fix this problem.”

The board of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California voted Tuesday to support Gov. Jerry Brown’s much-debated plan to build two giant tunnels beneath the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta to shore up the state’s water supplies. The Los Angeles-based MWD, Southern California’s water wholesaler, agreed to commit $4.3 billion toward the $17 billion California WaterFix project, despite claims by critics that the project will drive up residents’ water bills as high as $16 a month. Approval of the project ultimately lies with the state’s water boards, and if enough water districts do not vote to fund the tunnels, they will not be built.

The Metropolitan Water District Board in Los Angeles is scheduled to take a crucial vote Tuesday on whether to support a plan to build two massive tunnels underneath the Sacramento Delta. The $17 billion project promises to help maintain the flow of water from the state water project by easing pressure on endangered fish populations in the delta. Three new water intakes on the Sacramento River north of the delta would work in conjunction with the existing pump at the southern end of the delta.