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After considering cutting ties with The Water Conservation Garden, the Helix Water District Board has agreed to keep supporting the venue in Rancho San Diego for the next five years but at a declining rate. Earlier this year, Helix board member Dan McMillan questioned the need for the district to continue to fund the xeriscape demonstration garden on the Cuyamaca College campus, citing budgetary concerns and accountability to ratepayers.

San Diego communities are working together to diversify their water supply, with a plan to convert the wastewater that goes down drains and toilets, into purified drinking water. The Padre Dam Municipal Water District in Santee is leading the East County Advanced Water Purification Program. The district is working with Helix Water District, the city of El Cajon, and the County of San Diego to build a full-scale water purification facility on-site at Fanita Parkway.

Long-range weather forecasters have been striking out lately. Two years ago, they whiffed on El Niño, which was supposed to be a “monster” that would drench California and end four years of drought. Instead, the El Niño of 2015-16 turned out to be a mouse, and the drought dragged on.

Over the past 12 years, the country’s biggest urban water agency has paid farmers about $190 million not to grow crops on thousands of acres near the Colorado River in the Palo Verde Valley. The water has gone to Los Angeles and other cities across Southern California, and in return, the farmers who’ve left some of their lands unplanted have been able to count on additional income.

The South Coast Water District will hold a board workshop Tuesday in Laguna Beach to discuss the proposed Doheny Ocean Desalination Project. District staff will update board members about desalination studies, placement of slant wells, hydrology, alternative power supplies and cost estimates. South Coast, which serves customers in South Laguna, Dana Point, San Juan Capistrano and San Clemente, proposes a 5-acre facility on 30 acres of district-owned property near San Juan Creek.