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For years, San Diego Unified has known plumbing was aging at 78-year-old Emerson-Bandini Elementary School in Mountain View. In fact, three times in the past 13 years, Emerson’s plumbing needs were held up to voters as one of the reasons they should approve tax hikes to fund school repairs. Voters approved all three measures, pumping billions of dollars into the district. But the plumbing repairs have yet to happen. In the meantime, school officials found alarming levels of toxic chemicals in the water at Emerson.

The Carlsbad City Council met in special closed session Tuesday for personnel evaluations. In regular session, the council held a hearing and voted 3-2 to deny permits for the Carlsbad Boat Club and Resort, a 20-unit timeshare condominium project at 4509 Adams St.; approved moving $100,000 from the Agricultural Conversion Mitigation Fee fund to the Batiquitos Lagoon Foundation to prepare a resiliency plan for the lagoon; and heard an update from the founders of Bio, Tech and Beyond.

The San Diego Unified School District began testing its schools’ water this month after lab reports confirmed “higher than allowable” lead levels were found at one campus. Test results released Thursday show lead has been found in the water of schools tested last week but not more than the action level set by EPA of 15 parts per billion (ppb). In 2009, California’s health department, OEHHA, set the public health goal for lead in drinking water at 0.2 parts per billion. The district declined an on-camera interview and a recorded telephone interview Friday.

A newly formed water and power company managed by a San Diego housing developer is negotiating behind the scenes with the City of Industry on the future of 2,500 acres of undeveloped rolling hills near the borders of Los Angeles, Orange and San Bernardino counties. The business-centric City of Industry has been aggressively trying to regain control of the historic Tres Hermanos Ranch in Diamond Bar and Chino Hills, one of the largest remaining pieces of vacant private land in the region. The city lost access to the land during the demise of local redevelopment agencies five years ago.

As Northern California braces for more wet weather, state officials plan to resume releasing water down a damaged spillway at Oroville Dam. The California Department of Water Resources said Thursday that dam operators will reopen the damaged spillway for up to 14 days beginning Friday as state officials finish repair plans. But as Northern California continues to be hit by more storms and in anticipation of runoff from the snowmelt, DWR Director Bill Croyle said that repairs probably won’t start until May or early June.