San Diegans will be able to get a financial break on water leak repairs this week from a San Diego County Water Authority program. From today through Sunday, participating plumbers will offer 10 percent discounts on products and services needed to fix leaks, up to $100. The program is a partnership between the Water Authority and Plumbing-Heating-Cooling Contractors Association.
A Southern California brewery has successfully tested a beer using treated sewage water. Stone Brewing, a large craft brewing operation headquartered in Escondido, presented its Full Circle Pale Ale to curious customers at an event Thursday in San Diego. The new ale is made using recycled, treated sewage water and is part of San Diego’s plan, ‘Pure Water San Diego,’ to get a third of its water from recycled sources by 2021.
The drought is over, at least in the Santa Fe Irrigation District (SFID). At its meeting on Thursday, March 16, the district’s board voted unanimously to lift all restrictions on water use by its customers, essentially declaring that for the agency, which serves some 20,000 customers in Solana Beach, Rancho Santa Fe and Fairbanks Ranch, the drought that has plagued California for the past five years is a thing of the past.
A 25-year-long, $1.5 billion effort to upgrade San Diego County’s water system was recognized Thursday with one of the worlds’ top civil engineering awards. The San Diego County Water Authority project beat out the iconic One World Trade Center in New York to receive the Outstanding Civil Engineering Achievement Award from the American Society of Civil Engineers. The Emergency and Carryover Storage Project was designed to ensure up to six months of water is available and can be moved around the San Diego region after a major earthquake or other emergency disrupts outside water supplies.
Miguel Gasca is the newest member of the Rainbow Municipal Water District (RMWD) board. A 4-0 board vote Feb. 28 selected Gasca to fill the Division 3 seat vacated after Tory Walker moved to Murrieta and resigned from the board. Gasca will fill the remainder of Walker’s term, which expires in December 2018. “I’m glad to have the opportunity to serve the community,” said Gasca. “He’ll be a good addition to the board,” said Rainbow general manager Tom Kennedy.
San Diegans will be able to get a financial break on water leak repairs next week in a San Diego County Water Authority program. From Monday to March 26, participating plumbers will offer 10 percent discounts on products and services needed to fix leaks, up to $100. The program is a partnership between the Water Authority and Plumbing- Heating-Cooling Contractors Association.
After years of delays, California’s plans for the shrinking Salton Sea are finally starting to take shape. A $383 million plan released by the state’s Natural Resources Agency on Thursday lays out a schedule for building thousands of acres of ponds and wetlands that will cover up stretches of dusty lakebed and create habitat for birds as the lake recedes.
Badly needed fixes to Tijuana’s wastewater system — which recently leaked millions of gallons of raw sewage into the Pacific Ocean, fouling beaches as far north as Coronado — may have to wait. President Trump’s proposed budget released Thursday slashes funding for the Environmental Protection Agency by a whopping $5.7 billion dollars or 31 percent. Those cuts include dollars for the U.S.-Mexico Border Water Infrastructure Grant Program, which officials in San Diego and elsewhere hoped would help fix Tijuana’s aging sewer pipes and an ailing water treatment facility along the coast of Baja California.
San Diego gets most of its water supply from far away. About a fifth of it comes from Northern California. Gov. Jerry Brown has big ideas for making sure Southern California can continue drinking water from its northern neighbor. He wants to build two 35-mile underground tunnels 150 feet underground to keep water flowing south. The price tag would be at least $17 billion. Once a big supporter of the plan, the San Diego County Water Authority is now among its biggest skeptic.
California Gov. Jerry Brown’s administration on Thursday proposed spending nearly $400 million over 10 years to slow the shrinking of the state’s largest lake just as it is expected to evaporate an accelerated pace. The plan involves building ponds on the northern and southern ends of the Salton Sea, a salty, desert lake that has suffered a string of environmental setbacks since the late 1970s. During its heyday of international speed boat races, it drew more visitors than Yosemite National Park and celebrities including Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby and the Beach Boys.
