Lake Murray is one of several local reservoirs that may see their hours of operation get slashed starting next year because of budget issues in the city of San Diego. To cover the city’s $258 million deficit in its budget, the San Diego City Council is considering reducing the hours of both Lake Murray and Miramar Lake from seven days a week to just two – Saturday and Sunday.
San Diego’s notoriously bad customer service and billing for sewer and water customers is dramatically improving thanks to new software, more employees and shifting priorities. Hours-long customer-service hold times have shrunk to a record-low 69 seconds on average, while significantly fewer customers are getting hit with surprise cumulative bills as high as $2,000.
Gary Broomell, a longtime member and president of the Valley Center Municipal Water District board for almost 50 years, was an exemplar of the community man. He was an athlete, farmer, family man, community servant and great father.
Gary Arant the general manager of the Valley Center Water Authority sent a letter to San Diego City Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera suggesting maybe he was too young to remember what it was like to fear drought and unreliable water supplies. Elo-Rivera’s suggestion that the city of San Diego should consider dissolving or breaking up the San Diego County Water Authority has generated some severe umbrage among water leaders in the region. Click on the link below and scroll to the middle of the page for rest of this article.
Some residents in San Diego neighborhoods including Pacific Beach and La Jolla told CBS 8 that they have recently picked up on a strong chlorine flavor and questioned what was happening. One of whom was a Pacific Beach resident, Marie Kracha, who said she noticed something unusual about her tap water a few days ago.
A cold Pacific storm that dropped rain across the eastern half of San Diego County over the weekend will clear by Tuesday, allowing temperatures to return to seasonal levels by Thursday, the National Weather Service says. The system was weak, but it dropped 0.67 inches of precipitation on Otay Mountain, 0.34 inches in Alpine, and 0.26 inches in Julian, during the 24-hour period ending at 3:30 p.m. Sunday. The rain should help reduce the risk of wildfires.
San Diego’s water world is very happening right now. As our Scott Lewis reported, San Diego County Water Authority is facing an existential crisis. The high cost of water has one of the water supplier’s most powerful members — the city of San Diego — has leaders who are wondering if it’s time to do something drastic to the Water Authority.
San Diego residents and business owners may need to start making more adjustments, as their next water bills will be soon be more expensive. Starting Thursday, a 5.5% water rate increase goes into effect in the city of San Diego. The city council approved the hike back in March.
The Carlsbad City Council approved a plan last week to increase water, sewer, and recycled water rates by 49% during the next three years following recent cost-of-service studies. The council voted 4-1 to implement the new rate structure starting on July 1 with a 20% increase. Council member Melanie Burkholder cast the sole vote against the proposal.
As former San Diego County Water Authority Board Chairs, we heard and responded to demands from the region’s working families, civic and business leaders in the 1990s when our only major water source dried up.
Collectively, with our member agencies, we then spent three decades relentlessly securing new water supplies and investing in multi-billion-dollar upgrades that will last for generations. We remained steadfast in making the necessary and difficult decisions to support the entire San Diego region.
