Heavy rainfall in southern California has caused severe flooding in San Diego. Even Petco Park, the city’s baseball stadium, found itself under a few inches of water. Click through the slideshow to see the astounding images from around the city.
Plunging the long, metal rod into the snow beneath his feet in the mountain town of Phillips, state snow survey chief Frank Gehrke measured the Sierra Nevada snowpack Wednesday not against California’s recent, historic drought but against its biggest rain years. “It’s in the top two or three, three or four snow accumulations for March,” Gehrke said, standing on a 9-foot-high pillow of fresh powder Wednesday morning.
To hear John Duarte tell it, farmers knew the cavalry was coming to their rescue on election night. It’s one reason agricultural areas voted heavily for Donald Trump. On Tuesday, Trump ordered his new head of the Environmental Protection Agency, Scott Pruitt, to scale back the agency’s interpretation of the Clean Water Act. The 1972 law is widely credited for reversing the decline in drinking water quality nationwide by controlling pollution to navigable waters.
La Presa de Otay Lakes tuvo que abrir sus compuertas para disminuir el nivel de agua que ya había llegado a su máxima capacidad en los últimos seis años provocado por las intensas lluvias registradas en el condado de San Diego. La reserva alcanzó su límite y autoridades decidieron desfogar la presión hacia el Río Otay, informó la vocera de la ciudad Alma Rife. Según registros de la ciudad, la presa puede contener casi 49 mil 849 pies cuadrados de agua y para el lunes ya se había reportado que había llegado al93 por ciento de su capacidad.
President Trump stepped up his attack on federal environmental protections Tuesday, issuing an order directing his administration to begin the long process of rolling back sweeping clean water rules that were enacted by his predecessor. The order directing the Environmental Protection Agency to set about dismantling the Waters of the United States rule takes aim at one of President Obama’s signature environmental legacies, a far-reaching anti-pollution effort that expanded the authority of regulators over the nation’s waterways and wetlands.
It’s been about 13 years since San Diego received as much rain as it recorded on Monday, when the region was clobbered by an unexpectedly large storm. San Diego International Airport recorded 2.34” of rain on Monday — a figure that’s higher than the 2.19” that the city averages for the entire month of February. The National Weather Service says the airport hasn’t received that much rain since October 27, 2004, which it got 2.70”. “We got a real deluge,” said Steve Harrison, a weather service forecaster.
The Lower Otay Reservoir spilled over its dam today for the first time in six years because of Monday’s heavy rainfall, the city of San Diego reported today. The reservoir crested and began to spill into the Otay River Valley, but no downstream danger was anticipated, city spokeswoman Alma Rife said. “The reservoir serves as a terminal reservoir for a significant-sized watershed, imported water aqueducts and a source of local water for the Otay Drinking Water Treatment Plant,” Rife said.
The emergency that unfolded recently at Oroville Dam in Northern California poses no immediate or projected impact to water supplies in San Diego County. Voice of San Diego’s story on the crisis, though, states that “we could lose a significant chunk of our water supply, perhaps even 20-25 percent.” Low winter water demand, significant water reserves in Southern California and local investments in water supply reliability will allow the San Diego County Water Authority to provide uninterrupted water service here even if deliveries from Oroville are impacted.
Cities and water districts in East County, North County and the South Bay have lined up to oppose the city of San Diego’s ambitious plans to turn sewage into drinkable water. For years, San Diego has aimed to make recycled water drinkable and widespread. The idea used to face opposition from the public, who thought it was yucky. Two years ago, the drought and changes in public opinion seemed to remove any obstacles, so the city decided it could double the size of the three-part project’s first phrase.
The State of California is not living up to its responsibility to protect the health and well-being of the residents of the Coachella and Imperial valleys. Due to a water transfer referred to as the Quantification Settlement Agreement (QSA), significant inflows of water currently flowing into the Salton Sea will be diverted, beginning January 2018, to urban water districts. As a result, the Salton Sea will shrink rapidly, revealing vast acres of dried beaches (termed playas) that are the source of toxic dust.
The Water News Network is San Diego County’s source for water news and information.
