Having access to nature is a gift these days. In a time when our environmental protections are being threatened at a federal level, it’s more important than ever to get involved locally and make our voices heard. That’s why I encourage community members to join the effort to restore the northeast corner of Mission Bay and its wetlands. I grew up in San Diego and I remember running like a mountain lion through the Mission Bay wetlands, surrounded by tall cord grass, pickleweed and California sunflowers.

Federal and state water-quality regulators have cleared the way for the city of San Diego to avoid costly upgrades to an outdated wastewater treatment plant, as long as local officials continue to pursue a $3 billion water recycling program. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board approved on Monday the city’s permit application to operate the Point Loma Wastewater Treatment Plant for another five years despite it being the only facility of its kind not to meet federal clean water standards.

As the Salton Sea shrinks — exposing land that was once underwater to desert winds — one concern has been that increased dust emissions will make already poor air quality worse for nearby residents. A recently published study out of UC Riverside confirms this is already starting to happen. “With drying up of the lake and exposing of the shoreline, we get an additional source of airborne dust,” said UC Riverside associate professor of atmospheric science Roya Bahreini, who led the study. “And exposure to these particles can have health impacts for humans.”

The Municipal Water District of Orange County (MWDOC) is facilitating a water agreement that will bring surplus snowmelt and storm runoff from Northern California to Orange County and give the Groundwater Basin a chance to rebound from historic lows after the drought. Known as a cyclic storage agreement, the arrangement between MWDOC, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD) and Orange County Water District (OCWD) will recharge the Basin to its highest level since 2007 and ensure the Orange County Basin is healthy enough to stave off another drought.