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San Diego Unified School District is expected to announce new water testing policies Thursday in connection to the lead-tainted water found on several local campuses. The three-year program will involve testing all water outlets used for human consumption at district facilities. The sampling project will include early childhood education facilities and central offices, which were excluded from testing earlier this year. Water was at tested at 207 schools on district property beginning in April. Results showed 19 percent of the schools had some level of lead in the water.

 

Water fixtures at a school that tested for high levels of lead have been fixed and testing is continuing at other campuses throughout San Diego Unified, district officials said at a Thursday news conference that also highlighted new standards to protect students.

“As parents and community leaders, we understand the issue of lead exposure for children is more than a school issue,” school board President Richard Barrera said.

A group of San Diego business and civic leaders announced Thursday they have formed a coalition to question a move toward community choice energy, which would allow San Diego’s municipal government to acquire power separately from the local utility. The Clear the Air Coalition includes former Mayor Jerry Sanders, currently president and CEO of the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce, Frank Urtasun of Sempra Energy, and Joe Panetta, who leads the life sciences industry trade group Biocom, among others.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has determined that the 60-year-old Whittier Narrows Dam is structurally unsafe and poses a potentially catastrophic risk to the working-class communities along the San Gabriel River floodplain. According to an agency report based on research conducted last year, unusually heavy rains could trigger a premature opening of the dam’s massive spillway.

The clock is ticking as the Brown administration presses public water agencies to make a final decision on whether to fund the proposed California “WaterFix” project, a plan to construct two 40-foot diameter, 35-mile long tunnels under the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Though the $17 billion tunnel project really fixes nothing, some water agencies claim the project is the only viable option to get water to their communities and are poised to pass the huge costs onto their customers.