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The city of San Diego is standing by its new water meters despite resident complaints of skyrocketing bills without leaks. “I am absolutely confident that these meters are reading accurately,” said Michael Vogl, the city’s public utilities deputy director, who oversees water billing. Families from Mountain View to Scripps Ranch have contacted 10News to complain of the high bills, some doubling or tripling to more than $1,000. They say they’ve never had bills that high and that they or their plumbers haven’t found a leak. So many have concluded that the city’s water meters are off.

Three years ago, I was pleased to join San Diego leaders at a ceremony dedicating the San Vicente Dam Raise, a $416 million project that marked the single largest increase in water storage in San Diego County history. The project and others such as the state-of-the-art desalination facility at Carlsbad are key components of a water portfolio that demonstrates the region’s commitment to long-term water security.

In 1999, the state Legislature made the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California create an ethics office. Metropolitan, the main supplier of San Diego’s water, had just been caught up in an ethically questionable public relations campaign aimed at blocking the San Diego County Water Authority from buying water from someone else. Now, that ethics office – rather than mediating the long-running feud between the Water Authority and Metropolitan – has become another tool in the fight.

Nestor Alaniz didn’t get a permit to build a well in his mother’s backyard, and he didn’t get it inspected. In fact, he didn’t even know how to dig a well. He learned by watching tutorials on YouTube while his brother, a construction worker, helped him drill the 25-foot-deep hole. They built the well after the old one dried up for the fourth time. Their mother, who lives in a “colonia” – an unincorporated community – of about 400 residents outside of Yuma, Arizona, had gone without water to her home for a year.

Plans to dredge Agua Hedionda Lagoon and place the sand on Carlsbad beaches suffered a setback this week after residents raised concerns about pollutants. The city’s Planning Commission delayed approval of a permit needed for the project, scheduled to start in January, until more information can be gathered about the quality of the sand to be dredged.