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An end to California’s historic drought may finally be in sight, but it seems that the state’s water crisis is a mere drop in the bucket in relation to the decades of dirty dealings probed in the revealing National Geographic documentary, “Water & Power: A California Heist.” From the Monterey Amendments, a contentious policy that favored select Central Valley farmers, to the current ecologically problematic practice of groundwater extraction which could potentially create vast sinkholes, corporate thirst for control over the aquifer is emerging as the next environmental battleground.

Despite the deluge of rain in recent weeks, officials at the Padre Dam Municipal Water District continue working on a regional water reclamation program that converts sewage discharge into drinkable water. The still-controversial “toilet to tap” process has yet to be officially implemented, but it’s not that far off. An advanced water purification demonstration program, now in its second year, has a scheduled completion target of 2021. By then, reclaimed and purified sewage could be providing up to 30 percent of the district’s water demands.

Plunging the long, metal rod into the snow beneath his feet in the mountain town of Phillips, state snow survey chief Frank Gehrke measured the Sierra Nevada snowpack Wednesday not against California’s recent, historic drought but against its biggest rain years. “It’s in the top two or three, three or four snow accumulations for March,” Gehrke said, standing on a 9-foot-high pillow of fresh powder Wednesday morning.

 

La Presa de Otay Lakes tuvo que abrir sus compuertas para disminuir el nivel de agua que ya había llegado a su máxima capacidad en los últimos seis años provocado por las intensas lluvias registradas en el condado de San Diego. La reserva alcanzó su límite y autoridades decidieron desfogar la presión hacia el Río Otay, informó la vocera de la ciudad Alma Rife. Según registros de la ciudad, la presa puede contener casi 49 mil 849 pies cuadrados de agua y para el lunes ya se había reportado que había llegado al93 por ciento de su capacidad.

It’s been about 13 years since San Diego received as much rain as it recorded on Monday, when the region was clobbered by an unexpectedly large storm. San Diego International Airport recorded 2.34” of rain on Monday — a figure that’s higher than the 2.19” that the city averages for the entire month of February. The National Weather Service says the airport hasn’t received that much rain since October 27, 2004, which it got 2.70”. “We got a real deluge,” said Steve Harrison, a weather service forecaster.