California and Arizona both have laws meant to ensure new housing developments have enough water. In California, major new developments with more than 500 units must prove they have access to enough water for at least 20 years. Most water agencies, including the San Diego County Water Authority, have water already set aside for population growth, so this is usually a pretty simple thing to do.
It won’t wipe out San Diego’s rain deficit. But a potentially juicy storm is likely to drop 1 inch of rain along the coast and 1.5 inches in the region’s valleys and foothills later this week, and possibly a few inches of snow on mountain peaks. The National Weather Service says the system — like the one that hit on Saturday — could tap moisture from the sub-tropics as it passes through Southern California.
In the first of a series of weekend customer service sessions held by the city since receiving a flood of complaints over huge spikes in water bills, concerned homeowners spoke out. It’s the first of three weekend sessions planned in coming weeks to address residents’ complaints that they were being charged by the city for more water than they actually used. The sessions come after months of investigations and reporting by the NBC 7 Responds team.
Area water officials support helping low-income districts across the state clean up their drinking water supplies but have categorically opposed a recent budget trailer bill being considered in Sacramento that would impose a permanent statewide water tax to fund it. Officials from Foothill Municipal Water District — which serves La Cañada Irrigation District, Valley Water Co. and the Crescenta Valley and Mesa Crest water districts, among others — are joining others in voicing opposition to the Safe and Affordable Drinking Water Act.
Drought stricken California needs rain, but when the first downpours of the season happen, it brings large amounts of pollutants from city streets right to the ocean and the beaches of Long Beach. The city of Long Beach has approved a $30 million construction project, the Long Beach Municipal Urban Stormwater Treatment Project (LB-MUST). It will create a one-of-a-kind facility to capture runoff water from the Los Angeles and San Gabriel rivers. It not only captures the polluted water, but it will also clean it to be used for local wetlands and city irrigation projects.
Following a storm system set to bring drenching rain and mountain snow to the Pacific Northwest late this week, another system will track into Southern California this weekend. The latest U.S. drought monitor from March 1 showed that nearly 20 percent of California remains in severe drought, with moderate drought gripping about 50 percent of the state. Areas from central to Southern California are being gripped by the worst of the drought, including the cities of Fresno, Los Angeles and San Diego.
City staff members are set to give an update on the investigation and remediation of residential water bill overcharges at a City Council committee meeting Thursday, three weeks after Mayor Kevin Faulconer announced that an audit of the utility’s billing practices was being fast- tracked. City officials in February discovered problems with some customers’ water bills after hearing weeks of complaints. Some residents saw their charges skyrocket by as much as 400 percent due to what city officials say was one employee’s misreading of meters.
Followers of the ecologically dubious and largely pointless Cadiz water project in the Mojave Desert might have pricked up their ears last week at reports of a possible conflict of interest involving Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law, and the investment firm Apollo Global Management. That’s because Apollo is a sizable investor in Cadiz, which has received favorable regulatory treatment from the Trump administration after years of thumbs-down rulings under the Obama administration and from local and state officials. Apollo and Cadiz announced the $60-million investment, along with a “conditional” $240 million in construction financing, on May 2.
In the wake of rising outcry in San Diego of cross-border flows of contaminated water, trash and sediment from Tijuana, Mexico is moving ahead with a series of short-term upgrades to Tijuana’s sewage collection and treatment system aimed at preventing such incidents, and responding with greater speed should they occur. These efforts include upgrading a key piece of infrastructure in Tijuana known as Pump Station CILA that is critical for preventing dry weather flows in the Tijuana River channel from crossing into the United States.
It’s been an usually dry winter, and last weekend’s atmospheric river was welcome for the snow and rain it brought. But what did it mean for California’s water supply? In truth? Not much. As of last week, this winter was on track to be one of the warmest and driest on record. So, no one would blame you if you breathed a sigh of relief when that freezing cold storm came through and dumped rain and snow on our parched state. But look at the numbers and you’ll see that California’s far from recovered.
