You are now in San Diego County category.

City Water Bill Mess Puts Attention On The Water Department And Its Lack Of Oversight

/in /by /Voice Of San Diegoby Ry Rivard Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

City auditors are investigating billing problems at the city’s water department. Water officials have already acknowledged the city overcharged several hundred customers an average of $300 apiece. The mess has put unwanted attention on a major plan to change the way the city collects information from water users. If it were up to the city water department, auditors would definitely not look into the $60 million effort to install 280,000 new “smart meters” across the city – at least not right now.

Full Story

Southern California Will Get Gray Clouds While Arizona And Baja Get Beneficial Downpour

/in /by /The Orange County Register (As published by, Press-Telegram)by Chris Haire

An unpredictable storm will flit past Southern California this week – bathing the region in dreary gray, but not much else. Late last week meteorologists cautiously predicted rain would hit the Southland, possibly invigorating a lackluster winter. But unlike most storms the region gets, which march through the west-east jet stream, this one came freewheeling from the north, said Brett Albright, a National Weather Service meteorologist.

Full Story

OPINION: California Needs A Workable Delta Tunnel Plan

/in /by /Los Angeles Times

Like a patient waiting for heart bypass surgery while the insurance company dickers with the hospital over the numbers, California has been stuck in pre-op for decades, awaiting approval of an aqueduct or tunnel bypass from the Sacramento River around (instead of through) the state’s hydrological heart — the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.

Full Story

City of San Diego Says It Will Check Every Single Water Meter

/in /by /10 Newsby Jonathan Horn

The city of San Diego is expanding its probe into complaints over mysteriously high water bills by checking the 250,000-plus meters across the city. City spokesman Jerry McCormick said the expanded investigation has already begun into both smart and manually-read water meters. The announcement comes less than a day after the city divulged that more than 300 families were overbilled by an average $300 in four neighborhoods – Carmel Valley, Rancho Bernardo, Mira Mesa and Rancho Penasquitos.

Full Story

City Probe Finds ‘Human Error’ Responsible For Spiking Hundreds Of Water Bills

/in /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby Kristina Davis and Joshua Emerson Smith

The city overcharged residents by more than $100,000 in January for water they didn’t use, officials said Thursday following a months-long public outcry over skyrocketing bills. The findings are the result of an internal review by the Public Utilities Department this week that officials said traced the billing errors back to a single worker who had misread 343 meters in November and December.

Full Story

La Niña Is On Its Way Out. What Does That Mean For California?

/in /by /89.3 KPCC (Pasadena)by Jacob Margolis

Scientists regularly look for the formation or absence of the system when predicting weather in the American Southwest. La Niñas are driven by changes in ocean temperatures in the equatorial Pacific, as is the El Niño climate system that typically brings wetter, cooler winters to Southern California. This winter, La Niña predictions of less rain and snow have been spot on as counties across SoCal have dipped back into to moderate-to-severe drought conditions.

Full Story

State Plans To Stagger Construction Of $16 Billion Delta Water Tunnels

/in /by /Times of San Diegoby Chris Jennewein

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.

Full Story

Oceanside Joins Cities Looking At Alternative Energy Plan

/in /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby Phil Diehl

Oceanside has agreed to join three other North County cities sharing the costs of a study to determine the feasibility of forming a renewable-energy alternative to San Diego Gas & Electric Co. The study, expected to be completed by mid-summer, will look at the possibility of creating a nonprofit joint-powers authority to purchase electricity at a lower cost and higher percentage of renewable sources than that provided by SDG&E. The program is called a Community Choice Aggregation, or community choice energy.

Full Story

San Diego Officials Looking To Solve Mystery Of High Water Bills

/in /by /KPBSby Claire Trageser

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.

Full Story

San Diegans Hit With Surging Water Bills To Get Temporary Relief

/in /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby Joshua Emerson Smith

Council President Pro Tem Barbara Bry has called for temporary relief for San Diegans who continue to claim the city has charged them for water they didn’t use. Customers fighting high bills should continue to have access to water as long as they pay an amount equal to their average usage or what they were charged in the previous year during the same time period.

Full Story