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San Diego Unified Begins Testing Water for Lead

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.

Overly Enthusiastic Visitors Trample Wildflowers, Leading To Trail Closure

It was just before noon on a recent Sunday morning and a line had formed for the port-a-potties near the Wildflower Trail at Diamond Valley Lake in Riverside County. Cars were backed up around a bend in the road, and frustrated people resorted to parking two miles away and walking in.

They had come to see the “super bloom,” of wildflowers that have sprung up around the trails snaking around this drinking water reservoir. People are excited to take pictures of the flowers and themselves among the flowers, and many areas have been trampled.

Have SoCal’s Water Supplies Recovered? Depends On Where You Live

Here in California, we’ve been on a roller coaster when it comes to water. After five years of crippling drought, the Golden State had one of its wettest winters on record. So what has all the rain and snow meant for our water supply in Southern California? It depends on where you live and where your water comes from. About thirty percent of Southern California’s water comes from far, far away: Lake Oroville, a giant reservoir in the Sierra Nevada about 80 miles north of Sacramento.

Lead in Water at San Diego Schools: What We Know and Don’t Know

In the past several months, three schools in the San Diego region have revealed the presence of alarming levels of lead in their drinking water. Lead is unsafe at any level and it is especially damaging to children’s brains. Now, San Diego Unified and other school districts across the county are moving to test many more schools. Here’s what we know and what we do not.

Lead In Water At San Diego Schools: What We Know And Don’t Know

In the past several months, three schools in the San Diego region have revealed the presence of alarming levels of lead in their drinking water. Lead is unsafe at any level and it is especially damaging to children’s brains. Now, San Diego Unified and other school districts across the county are moving to test many more schools. Here’s what we know and what we do not. At La Mirada Elementary School in San Ysidro, samples taken last fall found alarming levels of lead coming from eight drinking fountains.

Board Members Get Paid For Meetings That Aren’t Public

If a government meeting convenes in San Diego and there’s no agenda or minutes, did it really happen? This is one of the questions California lawmakers hoped to avoid with passage of the Brown Act, the 1953 open meeting law that generally prohibits a majority of the members of a public board or council from meeting, discussing or deliberating government matters outside of a publicly noticed meeting.

Salton Sea Restoration No Longer Waiting For Dust To Settle

The California Natural Resources Agency (CNRA) and the Salton Sea Task Force released a ten-year plan to protect habitat and human health for the state’s largest inland lake that has been plagued by decreased flows, drought and rapidly increasing salinity and pollutants. Exposed playa, or lakebed, along the sea’s shores create toxic dust, as many locals have developed respiratory illness in the Imperial Valley. Tiny particulate matter is exposed on the playa and carried through the air as dust into Riverside and Imperial Counties.

San Diego Leaders Call On MWD To ‘Stop The Spending!’

On March 22, the San Diego County Board of Supervisors unanimously adopted a resolution in support of efforts by the San Diego County Water Authority to recover nearly $250 million in illegal charges imposed on local water users in recent years by the Metropolitan Water District (MWD) of Southern California, and calling on MWD to end ratepayer overcharges, overspending and unplanned borrowing that have contributed to MWD doubling water rates over the past decade.

Yay! San Diego Reservoirs Filling Up

On January 26, San Diego County’s water authority exulted that the drought was over. On March 22, the New York Times wrote, “We have some good news on the California drought.” The huge snowpack in the Sierras portends more water. Countywide, San Diego’s reservoirs are filling up. People are cheering. But there’s little joy in tiny Borrego Springs, in the northeast portion of the county. It doesn’t have reservoirs. It gets its water from an aquifer, or permeable rock that can transmit groundwater.

San Diego Leaders Call On MWD To ‘Stop The Spending!’

On March 22, the San Diego County Board of Supervisors unanimously adopted a resolution in support of efforts by the San Diego County Water Authority to recover nearly $250 million in illegal charges imposed on local water users in recent years by the Metropolitan Water District (MWD) of Southern California, and calling on MWD to end ratepayer overcharges, overspending and unplanned borrowing that have contributed to MWD doubling water rates over the past decade.