An unusually strong spring storm will add more snow to the Sierra Nevada Mountains, where winter storms left behind the most robust snowpack in the last six years. A brief bout of rainfall, possibly accompanied by strong winds, is expected in the Los Angeles area Saturday with more significant precipitation to the north. The storm could be the most powerful the Sierra Nevada Mountains have seen in April in a decade.
As working families across the San Diego region struggle to make ends meet, the Los Angeles-based Metropolitan Water District of Southern California has no such concerns. That’s because the MWD can tax and raise rates at will – and it has done precisely that. Several steps removed from nearly 20 million residents it serves, MWD overcharged ratepayers $847 million more than the agency’s budgets said was needed from 2012 to 2015. To make matters worse, MWD overspent its budget by $1.2 billion from 2013 to 2016 on things like buying Bay-Delta islands ($175 million) and turf replacement ($420 million).
San Diego public utility workers began testing water for lead at San Diego Unified schools this week. It’s been widely reported a therapy dog at a school in Southcrest sniffed out the potential lead problem. But a district spokesman says the dog actually led custodians to discover another contaminant — one the city water tests won’t detect. Custodians at Emerson-Bandini Elementary School discovered old PVC pipes were leaching vinyl chloride into the drinking water after the dog refused to drink from its bowl, said spokesman Andrew Sharp.
In The Valley Roadrunner on March 15, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California told North County Residents, farmers, breweries and biotechnology companies that the source of 100 percent of the water flowing to them from MWD is from MWD’s Northern California supply source – which it notes is higher quality water – and “not a drop” of their supplies is coming from its far saltier Colorado River source. This claim is false.
As you circle the Silver Lake Reservoir’s shores over the next two months, watching its concentric bathtub rings vanish beneath icy blue Eastern Sierra snowmelt, don’t be fooled into thinking that’s a victory. Yes, the reservoir is being refilled. And with real water. And sooner than we thought. But refilling the Silver Lake Reservoir is a big missed opportunity.
The San Diego Unified School District began testing its schools’ water Tuesday after lab reports confirmed “higher than allowable” lead levels were found at one campus. Five water samples were taken from Horton Elementary School on Guymon Street in the morning, hours before staff or students arrived to campus. Samples were collected from water in the cafeteria, food prep areas and also drinking fountains. It’s one of the first schools within the district to be tested for lead and other contaminates.
Testing for lead in water systems at San Diego Unified School District campuses began Monday, according to district officials. The testing program comes a couple of months after elevated levels of lead, copper and bacteria were discovered at three campuses in the San Ysidro School District. Testing previously took place at Emerson-Bandini Elementary School in Southcrest after a nurse saw a therapy dog reluctant to drink the water — which turned out to contain a variety of contaminants, including lead, according to multiple news reports.
In 2004, 83 percent of California voters approved Proposition 59, which had been placed on the state ballot by unanimous votes of the state Senate and Assembly. The “Sunshine Amendment” was intended to be the most forceful formal endorsement in California history of the paramount importance of government openness and transparency. It guaranteed public access to the meetings of government agencies and boards. But it also offered landmark guidance: It held that “statutes and rules furthering public access shall be broadly construed, or narrowly construed if limiting access.”
The drought in California may be easing after a long and wet winter, but that doesn’t mean the Golden State is free from water troubles. That’s why a new campaign by LA agency Quigley-Simpson for the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (a state-established cooperative of 26 cities and water agencies serving nearly 19 million people) is informing people that water conservation is still a priority.
The so-called “superbloom” has apparently made some fans of wildflowers super obnoxious. Diamond Valley Lake’s wildflower trail has become so popular these past few weeks, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California – which oversees the lake – had to close it “due to excessive foot traffic.” To put it plainly, too many people were going off-trail and trampling the wildflowers. “Measures were set up to reinforce the importance of trail rules and to ensure that the Reserve resources are protected while visitors experience the beauty of the wildflowers,” according to Diamond Valley Lake’s website.
