The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California approved the repair of the forebay lining and outlet tower at Lake Mathews. The Nov. 14 MWD board vote awarded a $3,248,000 contract to J.F. Shea Construction for the work while appropriating $4,570,000 for the project. The board action also found the project categorically exempt from California Environmental Quality Act review.
The city of San Diego and the San Diego County Water Authority are closing in on a deal to construct a giant new hydroelectric facility in East County. Together with a private company, the city and the Water Authority would build what amounts to a water battery. The project is designed to make money off daily changes in energy prices and provide enough green energy to power 325,000 homes.
As Gov. Jerry Brown was making his way through Europe last month, striking an evangelical tone about the global peril represented by climate change, California’s Air Resources Board released good news about emissions reported by companies covered under the state’s cap-and-trade system. Its report showed greenhouse gas emissions reduced by almost 5 percent in 2016, propelling the state toward meeting its ambitious goals. And for that we can thank Mother Nature.
A 14-inch water line break left an East County shopping center without water for most of Wednesday. The break occurred at about 12 p.m. on Camino Canada near Los Coches Road off Interstate 8 in an unincorporated area of El Cajon, near the East County Square shopping center. A Padre Water District spokesperson said about 34 retail stores in the center were without water. Water is not expected to be restored until about midnight, according to the spokesperson.
Volunteer Paul Bareno’s yellow shirt makes him easy to see as he helps clean up a stretch of San Diego riverbed. “We were here, I’m guessing, we were here about two months ago, maybe less. And we got it pretty clean. Yeah we hit the same amount of places regularly,” said Bareno. There is plenty to clean up. There are clothes, food wrappers and at one campsite, long strips of yellow plastic tubing that’s supposed to be a temporary sandbag. None of it is surprising.
In a mere seven weeks, hundreds of thousands of California residents will face a major deadline affecting the health of their families and their communities. On Dec. 31, water deliveries that have been staving off ecological disaster at the Salton Sea for 15 years will come to a halt, leaving an uncertain future for the entire region. Here’s how we got here: In 2003, California struck a deal to divert a large amount of water from Imperial Valley farms to cities.
It is now politically possible to poke a giant hole in San Diego Gas & Electric’s longtime monopoly. A majority of the San Diego City Council is open to forming a government-run agency to buy power for city residents – though it is not yet a done deal. In the past, the company has fought off such attempts to weaken its monopoly. Mayor Kevin Faulconer’s administration is going to be coming up with a business plan for such an agency over the next several months.
State officials are under fire for not keeping up with legal requirements to track waterways that are polluted or have other problems that affect using those waterways for activities including fishing and swimming. San Diego Coastkeeper is one of three clean water groups suing the state in an effort to get better water quality. Coastkeeper Matt O’Malley said the groups want to make sure the state complies with federal clean water rules by doing a better job of identifying and listing impaired waterways that don’t meet the federal guidelines.
With Tijuana and other rapidly growing coastal cities heavily dependent on the Colorado River, Baja California urgently needs to find new water sources. Baja California Gov. Francisco Vega de Lamadrid’s administration has offered a solution: Build the largest desalination plant in the Western Hemisphere, enough to ensure a supply for decades to come. But plans for the reverse-osmosis facility in Rosarito Beach, a project that at full capacity would desalinate 100 million gallons daily, have come under unprecedented scrutiny at a politically sensitive moment.
The Fallbrook Public Utility District board of directors held a special board meeting the evening of Nov. 15 to provide background information regarding proposed water rate increases and to allow customers the opportunity to give their input regarding the rate hikes. FPUD officials were expecting a large turnout and they got it as more than 100 people crammed inside the FPUD board room. A sound system allowed those that weren’t able to get a spot inside the room to hear the meeting while sitting or standing in the courtyard.
