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Mayor Kevin Faulconer’s proposal to spend significantly less clearing clogged drainage channels has raised concerns about higher flood risk in San Diego, but Faulconer’s staff says there’s no reason to worry. The city can prudently spend as much as $1.4 million less on clearing flood channels during the fiscal year that begins July 1 because staff has become more efficient at obtaining environmental permits and completing the work, said Kris McFadden, director of the city’s Transportation and Storm Water Department.

New lead testing results at Vista Unified School District schools show that a faucet, used for food preparation at one elementary school, has tested positive for lead. The faucet, located at Grapevine Elementary School in Vista, at 630 Grapevine Road, is located in the kitchen. Of the 29 schools tested in the school district, 22 schools passed the lead test. Tests at six schools are still pending. The district is taking advantage of a state program to pay for the testing at its schools.

Two prominent former California Democratic lawmakers who oversaw environmental legislation, U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer and state Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, have signed on to lobby for a controversial desalination plant in Huntington Beach. For nearly two decades, the plant proposed for a Pacific Coast Highway site next to an existing Huntington Beach power generating facility has faced strong opposition from community and environmental groups. It is one of eight desalination plants currently proposed in the state, including at coastal properties at Doheny State Beach in Dana Point and near the El Porto area adjacent to El Segundo.

Maureen Stapleton of the San Diego County Water Authority (SDCWA) spoke to the Valley Center Municipal Water District board Monday, updating members on the California “drought,” on a lawsuit between SDCWA and the Metropolitan Water District —and alerted them to what the Authority considers questionable financial practices by the Met. Later a representative of the Met asked for time to rebut some of Stapleton’s points. Stapleton was welcomed as “an old friend,” by board President Gary Broomell, with Stapleton quipping, “emphasis on the old.”

Lead was a problem for hundreds of San Diego children even before the latest scare involving San Diego Unified, records from the county health department show. Last year, public health officials found hundreds of children in San Diego County with elevated levels of lead in their blood. The children are at risk for a host of health problems, including behavioral disorders. The county health department’s Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program collected blood test data from 37,574 of the county’s 250,000 children under the age of 6, which is when children are at most risk of problems from lead exposure.