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The Rainbow Municipal Water District will be seeking a grant from the state Department of Water Resources for a feasibility study on brackish groundwater desalination in the Bonsall Basin of the San Luis Rey River. The water district board voted 5-0, Aug. 22, to approve the application of a grant to DWR along with execution of any agreement if the grant is approved. The grant would offset the cost of the Bonsall Basin desalination feasibility study. “We think we’re in good shape to hopefully receive these funds,” Rainbow general manager Tom Kennedy said.

Officials broke ground Wednesday on a pilot plant to demonstrate a new wastewater treatment technology that promises to save energy, land, water and capital expense over existing technologies. The project is being funded through a $1.56 million grant from the California Energy Commission. The technology was developed by BDPEnviroTech, a Laguna Hills-based company that, by the end 2017, will have more than 30 projects using this technology operational in China, said CEO Eric Li.

For years, San Diego water officials argued the region’s major supplier of water, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, charges too much to deliver water to San Diego from the Colorado River. On Wednesday, the state Supreme Court declined to take up the case, leaving a lower court ruling siding with Metropolitan in place.The Water Authority picked up smaller savings, amounting to an estimated $1.1 billion in the next several decades. But that’s about $6 billion less than it had hoped.

Southern California’s mammoth water agency appeared ready to plow ahead with the Delta tunnels project Tuesday, despite a “no” vote by a giant bloc of San Joaquin Valley farmers that could doom the $17 billion proposal. The Metropolitan Water District’s board of directors signaled that it’s ready to vote Oct. 10 on whether to pay for about one-fourth of the tunnels project, a $4 billion commitment. Metropolitan’s general manager, Jeff Kightlinger, urged directors to proceed with a vote as a way of determining whether the controversial project can be salvaged.

The state’s water users will find out soon if they will be paying for the $17 billion tunnel project called the California WaterFix. The controversial plan proposes building tunnels under the Sacramento Delta to secure the supply of water being sent south. But the plan is already finding itself in rough waters. The $17 billion project has the backing of California Gov. Jerry Brown and Southern California’s largest water wholesaler, the Metropolitan Water District. But farmers in the Westland’s Water District have decided the project is too expensive.