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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.

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.