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A Plan To Build Huge Water Tunnels Gets September Deadline

When Southern California needs water, it takes a big gulp from the streams and waterways of Northern California. One of those is the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, and a multi-billion dollar plan years in the making could overhaul how we get our water from there. And officials have announced that it will make a decision on that plan by September. Jeffrey Mount, senior fellow of the Water Policy Center at the Public Policy Institute of California, joins Take Two to explain what’s at stake.

VIDEO SERIES: California’s Dying Sea

In this series, The Desert Sun investigates the crisis of the shrinking Salton Sea, from its worsening dust storms to its disappearing birds. The lake is becoming a toxic dust bowl — nearly 15 years after California lawmakers promised to fix it.

MWD Approves Domenigoni Basin Groundwater Monitoring Contract

A groundwater basin monitoring contract between the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California and GeoPentech, Inc., to monitor the Domenigoni Basin has been approved. The $160,000 contract was authorized as part of a May 9 MWD board vote. GeoPentech, which is headquartered in Irvine, will monitor the basin west of Diamond Valley Lake. Water first flowed into Diamond Valley Lake in 1999. MWD approved the project, including an Environmental Impact Report, in 1991. The EIR identified a need to mitigate groundwater flows after the reservoir’s construction, and MWD currently mitigates downstream impacts with engineered seepage from Diamond Valley Lake and from the San Diego Canal.

June Gloom Will Give Way To Near-Record Heat Later This Week, Forecasters Say

A heat wave is expected in Southern California at the end of this week, but forecasters are not anticipating temperatures to break records. Temperatures will be about 15 degrees higher than average in the Antelope Valley, with highs in the mid-100s forecast for Lancaster and Palmdale. In downtown Los Angeles, temperatures are expected peak in the mid to upper 80s while coastal areas will reach the mid to upper 70s. In the San Fernando Valley, temperatures could reach up to 96 degrees on Thursday and 100 degrees on Friday.

Fed Up Residents Pack The CA Regional Water Quality Control Board

From lead contamination to sewage spills, concerned neighbors say they are fed up with water problems in San Diego, and on Saturday, they took their frustrations straight to the source. Dozens packed the California Regional Water Quality Control Board meeting, arguing for what they say needs to fixed. Several neighbors took to the open mic to raise issues over industrial waste, toxic medical waste and sewage contaminating local waterways. Many residents were still angry about millions of gallons of sewage pumping in from Mexico spills and forcing the closure of local beaches.

CWA Approves Fiber Optic Cable Monitoring Contract

The San Diego County Water Authority (CWA) approved a contract with Pure Technologies U.S., Inc., to monitor acoustic fiber optic cable in four CWA pipelines The CWA board vote April 27 approved a contract for up to $2,319,814 over five years to monitor the fiber optic cable in Pipeline 3, Pipeline 4, Pipeline 5, and the crossover pipeline.

VIDEO: Politically Speaking: Warring Over Water

Water rates in San Diego next year will go up by the smallest hike since 2014. More than half of that increase is due to rising costs charged by the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. That agency and our County Water Authority don’t see eye-to-eye. Jim Madaffer, vice chairman of the Water Authority, stops by NBC 7’s Politically Speaking to walk us through issues that prompted a rate-case lawsuit the authority won in Superior Court , and which MWD has taken to an appeal court.

Thirsty Yard Gets WaterSmart Makeover

Bob and Andrea Raibert experienced a shock when they moved from a smaller property to their new home in Poway and then got the water bill for last July and August. The existing landscape was mainly Bermuda grass that required a lot of irrigation to keep it green. There were a few bushes planted along the street, and two diseased birch trees needed to be replaced. “With this and the ongoing drought and mandates to cut water use, we wanted to do our part,” Bob said.

CWA Sets June 22 Hearing For Proposed Rate Increase

San Diego County Water Authority (SDCWA) staff proposed what would equate to a 3.7 percent rate increase for SDCWA water rates, and on May 25 the CWA board set a June 22 hearing date for the proposed 2018 rates. The cost per acre-foot on a countywide basis will increase from $1,546 to $1,603 for treated water and from $1,256 to $1,303 for untreated supply. The proposed rate changes also include replacing a per-acre annexation cost with a single annexation application fee.

Water Panel Says Its Long-held Private Meetings Are Necessary, Legal

The San Diego County Water Authority fears it could harm ratepayers by opening up meetings that have been held out of the public’s view for decades. A letter this week by the authority’s top lawyer said it’s legal and necessary to hold private, unnoticed and unrecorded gatherings with the agency’s appointed delegates to the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, or MWD, a regional agency based in Los Angeles.