The San Diego County Water Authority (SDCWA) announced Monday it will take a long-running legal dispute over rates to the state Supreme Court. The decision comes just over a month after an appellate court issued what amounted to a split decision in the Water Authority’s case against the Metropolitan Water District (MWD) of Southern California. The SDCWA has sued the MWD multiple times over rates, with the largest issue being how much the MWD was allowed to charge for transporting Colorado River water to San Diego.

The San Diego County Water Authority announced Monday that it will take a long-running legal dispute over rates to the state Supreme Court. The decision comes just over a month after an appellate court issued what amounted to a split decision in the Water Authority’s case against the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. The SDCWA has sued the MWD multiple times over rates, with the largest issue being how much the MWD was allowed to charge for transporting Colorado River water to San Diego.

Significantly more schools in San Diego are having their water tested for toxic lead than elsewhere in California, prompting local water officials to begin pressing for state reimbursement of steep testing costs. Since California began in January requiring water agencies to conduct lead tests for free at all schools that submit requests, 507 out of 1,259 schools tested statewide have been in San Diego County. That number dwarfs second-place Los Angeles County, with 100 schools tested, third-place Orange County, with 85 schools tested, and every other county in the state.

The health of many rivers and streams throughout San Diego County — which flow down canyons and wind through often contaminated urban landscapes — has improved after suffering during several years of drought conditions, according to a report released this week by the nonprofit environmental group San Diego Coastkeeper. While pollution continues to significantly impact all watersheds in the region, Coastkeeper’s annual water-quality monitoring report found markedly cleaner waters in 2016 compared to the previous two years. That includes monitoring done in the San Diego, Sweetwater and Otay watersheds.

The San Diego County Water Authority (SDCWA) is moving forwarding with the $28.6 million Milestone Pipeline Relining project. The Board of Directors approved the project Thursday to rehabilitate more than four-miles of a pipeline between Lake Murray and Sweetwater Reservoir. “Pipeline relining is an important and often overlooked program that’s extending the life and reliability of the system we depend on every day to deliver water to our taps when we need it,” said Mark Muir, chair of the Water Authority Board.