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State water officials announced Wednesday they will pursue staged construction of a proposed multibillion-dollar water-delivery project, leaving water agencies in Southern California to decide if they want to continue supporting the effort. The $16.3 billion project, known as California WaterFix, would divert water from the Sacramento River as it enters the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and carry it to existing federal and state pumping stations in the southern part of the delta through two 35-mile tunnels.

San Diego officials are taking on the mystery of why residents from across the city are receiving water bills for thousands of dollars. City Councilwoman Barbara Bry has asked the city auditor to examine the Public Utilities Department to determine the cause. She made the request after getting almost 100 complaints from constituents and hearing from other councilmembers that they had received reports of high water bills as well.

At a time when droughts occur more frequently and winters can be hot and bone dry, Southern California water agencies are scrambling for new water sources. When the Water Replenishment District of Southern California located a 30-year supply trapped between the ocean and an aquifer, it was like a prospector finding gold.

An untold number of water customers across San Diego are receiving inexplicably high water bills from the city. One gentleman told me the high charges, which he believes are inaccurate, threaten his ability to continue living in San Diego. He’s surely not alone. The city’s Public Utilities Department has mostly blamed its customers. The department says customers must be confused by a mixture of undetected leaks; a recent rate increase of 6.9 percent; a recent billing cycle that was 10 days longer than normal; unusually hot and dry weather; and, from time to time, “meter reading inconsistencies.”