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A slow-moving emergency is lapping at California’s shores — climate-driven sea-level rise that experts now predict could elevate the water in coastal areas up to 10 feet in just 70 years, gobbling up beachfront and overwhelming low-lying cities. The speed with which polar ice is melting and glacier shelves are cracking off indicates to some scientists that once-unthinkable outer-range projections of sea rise may turn out to be too conservative. A knee-buckling new state-commissioned report warns that if nothing changes, California’s coastal waters will rise at a rate 30 to 40 times faster than in the last century.

Although Los Angeles city water customers paid extra for costly imported water during the five-year drought, their water bills will drop very little now that the Department of Water and Power has a plentiful supply of its own, officials said. The DWP surplus does not translate into big savings for individual bill payers because water rates were restructured last year.  The new rates are intended to raise more money for water system improvements.”The money that would have gone to purchased water is now going to infrastructure investment,” said DWP spokeswoman Amanda Parsons.

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.