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In just 128 days, mitigation water deliveries mandated by the 2003 water transfer will end. Meanwhile, the Salton Sea is expected to start receding at a much faster pace leaving thousands of acres of emissive playa exposed. Under the Quantification Settlement Agreement in which the State of California assumed responsibility to find a solution for the Salton Sea, the 2018 date to end mitigation water delivery was set to give the state enough time to come up with a solution. Nearly 15 years have passed and that promise has gone unfulfilled.

California’s record drought is officially over. But all over the states, trees are still dying. They’ve been badly weakened by years without water. In Bear Valley Springs, Mark Anderson and his partner bought a house to get away from city stress. It’s a small mountain community 125 miles north of Los Angeles at the tail end of the Sierra Nevada. But then, as he tells it, he found a whole new form of stress – the pine bark beetle.

In the heart of El Cajon, easily undetectable to the naked eye, lies a little slice of paradise and a great resource for those wanting to know more about San Diego County’s efforts in water efficiency. The Water Conservation Garden is a six-acre outdoor space and educational exhibit that showcases water efficiency through a series of beautiful and immersive themed gardens, such as a native plant garden and a vegetable garden, as well as how-to displays on mulching and irrigation techniques.

Lakes and ponds used by water utilities have long been viewed with a single purpose: holding water. Now a handful of pioneering water utilities are looking at their aquatic real estate with a new purpose in mind: solar energy generation. Large-scale floating solar projects have been installed in Japan and China, as well as on ponds at California wineries. But solar energy has remained primarily a terrestrial endeavor because, in most cases, it is simpler and cheaper to mount photovoltaic (solar) panels on land.

An exciting concept is emerging in San Diego County that could reduce pressure on water rates across the region and expand opportunities for renewable energy. The system under consideration is essentially an incredible “battery” that could store up to 500 megawatts of renewable energy. There’s still a lot of work to be done to determine whether this idea pencils out — but it’s important even at this early stage because it highlights how the San Diego County Water Authority and its member agencies are continually seeking ways to make the best use of the region’s water infrastructure.