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San Diego Unified School District will test every drinking fountain and kitchen sink on campuses for lead in the water over the next few years, greatly expanding on tests previously conducted by the City of San Diego. School district trustees adopted the testing plan, expected to cost $200,000, at Tuesday night’s meeting. Fixing all the faucets and sinks that are found to have a certain level of lead could cost more than $1 million over the next three to five years.

Recently completed upgrades to water fixtures in nine historic buildings in Balboa Park will save an estimated 2.4 million gallons of water a year. The Balboa Park Cultural Partnership in cooperation with the San Diego County Water Authority and San Diego Gas & Electric installed 365 high-efficiency water fixtures throughout the park. The $166,000 project,  completed last week, will cut water use in restrooms by more than half, and also save energy. In addition, new signage at the popular local and tourist destination promotes water-use efficiency.

 

In recent years, the California State Auditor’s Office has waded into the affairs of several small water districts and water retailers, including districts in Victorville and Hesperia and the city of Downey’s Public Works Department. This is all well and good. The state auditor’s office purview covers a wide range of government bodies, and the obscure ones certainly merit the same sort of oversight.

Michael Grahek trudged through the murk of a historic Los Angeles Department of Water and Power water tunnel, his flashlight sweeping its century-old concrete walls. His light then settled on some a strange outlines in the Sylmar shaft. “Notice the footprints,” said Grahek, LADWP manager of southern aqueduct and Owens Lake Operations and maintenance, pausing inside the arched tunnel. “Somebody stepped in the wet cement almost 100 years ago.”

The San Diego County Water Authority issued a request for interest for the proposed pumped storage project in January that drew 18 respondents. The respondents included five full-service entities offering to finance, design, permit, build, and operate the project, as well as responses from two developers, five off-takers, and six parties interested in building the project, providing equipment for the project, or serving as a consultant for engineering, procurement, and construction services. SDCWA said in a release that the responses confirmed that the project would be a valuable resource helping integrate more variable generation and providing other grid support services.