A report about areas of the unincorporated county that had water quality issues led to some residents calling the Ramona Municipal Water District with concerns, said the district’s general manager. David Barnum told the water board at its March 14 meeting that none of the areas listed in a recent report from the State Water Resources Control Board received water from RMWD, which imports its water from the San Diego County Water Authority.
The San Diego County Water Authority and select locations of The Home Depot are again partnering to offer discounts on water-efficient plants ideal for springtime planting through a series of San Diego County Garden Friendly Plant Fairs. Consumers are invited to take advantage of these deals at seven events across the county. The next one will be held March 25, from 9 a.m.-1 p.m. at The Home Depot in Encinitas (1001 N. El Camino Real, Encinitas).
Exposure to lead at an early age has been linked to cognitive impairment and behavioral problems, which is why the stories about officials allegedly covering up excessive lead in the water supply of Flint, Michigan, became a national scandal. But an alarming 2016 Reuters investigation documenting children’s exposure to lead in 21 states, including California, never got the attention it deserved. In Flint, 5 percent of children met the Centers for Disease Control elevated lead exposure threshold of 5 micrograms per deciliter of blood, double the national average.
More than five weeks after erosion damage at Lake Oroville forced residents to flee to high ground, the Butte County Sheriff’s Office on Wednesday announced it had lifted an evacuation advisory. More than 100,000 Butte County residents were given an hour’s notice to evacuate on Feb. 12, when officials feared that a concrete weir on the reservoir could collapse and send a 30-foot wall of water into the valley below. The order took residents by surprise because Department of Water Resources officials had repeatedly assured them that erosion damage to the reservoir’s main and emergency spillways posed no threat.
Exposure to lead at an early age has been linked to cognitive impairment and behavioral problems, which is why the stories about officials allegedly covering up excessive lead in the water supply of Flint, Michigan, became a national scandal. But an alarming 2016 Reuters investigation documenting children’s exposure to lead in 21 states, including California, never got the attention it deserved. In Flint, 5 percent of children met the Centers for Disease Control elevated lead exposure threshold of 5 micrograms per deciliter of blood, double the national average.
As California pulls out of the drought, expect to see a weird thing: water agencies opposing plans to help the state get through future droughts. Water agencies are working on dozens of projects to boost Southern California’s water supply. Combined, these projects could provide enough drinking water for several million people. But many of the agencies are simultaneously boosting their own projects and arguing that others shouldn’t be built – partly out of a fear that ratepayers will only tolerate so many projects, and partly because of politics and territorialism.
Here’s a cold, wet reality: the more water in California’s reservoirs, the less urgency there is to build new ocean-water desalination plants that became a major talking point during the state’s long, parched years of drought, an ultra-dry period some folks insist has still not ended despite months of heavy rains. Those record or near-record rains have replenished everything reservoirs lost over the last few years of drought, and sometimes more.
San Diego County is calling on the powerful Metropolitan Water District to return what local leaders say is $250 million in illegal charges over a number of years. The Board of Supervisors unanimously adopted a resolution Wednesday supporting efforts by the San Diego County Water Authority to recover money the authority says was taken by a combination of overcharging, overspending and excessive borrowing.
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 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 2012-2015. To make matters worse, MWD overspent its budget by $1.2 billion from 2013-2016 on things like buying Bay-Delta islands ($175 million) and turf replacement ($420 million).
San Diego County is calling on the powerful Metropolitan Water District to return what local leaders say is $250 million in illegal charges over a number of years. The Board of Supervisors unanimously adopted a resolution Wednesday supporting efforts by the San Diego County Water Authority to recover money the authority says was taken by a combination of overcharging, overspending and excessive borrowing.
