As California faces the prospect of a sixth-straight year of drought, fears have been somewhat tempered that residents and businesses would abandon water savings in response to state officials lifting mandatory conservation standards. The State Water Resources Control Board announced Tuesday that urban water use across the state, as well as in San Diego County, declined in September after having been on the rise for several months.
Dean Cortopassi makes no apologies for it: He’s angry about government debt. And his anger explains why he was willing to go it alone and bankroll the effort to place Proposition 53 on the Nov. 8 ballot.
A wealthy Central Valley farmer and tomato cannery owner, Cortopassi contends that politicians refuse to either fully disclose or accept the long-term cost of billions of dollars in local and state government borrowing. This proposition would require any revenue bond of $2 billion or more to be approved by California voters.
Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board proposed a City of San Diego wastewater discharge permit to increase ocean water quality protection and water reuse. The proposed permit for the City’s Point Loma Wastewater Treatment Plant would ensure that all federal and state water quality standards are met.
In 2014, the City and environmental organizations signed an agreement for the City to implement a potable water reuse plan.
Encinitas City Council candidate Mark Muir, who is running for reelection after five years on the Council, has truly been serving the public for his entire adult life.
A native San Diegan, Muir was a career firefighter who eventually rose to the rank of fire chief for the city of Encinitas. In his five years on the Council, he has not accepted the retirement salary because “I’m retired and have the time to dedicate myself to protecting, preserving and promoting our wonderful city.”
The real water crisis in California is water management. Two northern California reservoirs have been delayed for a decade or more. The citizens living near the proposed reservoirs want the jobs they will provide. California taxpayers have funded Water Bonds almost every two years since 1970 (40 years) but still no new northern California reservoirs.
An undersea oil pipeline that for more than 50 years supplied Carlsbad’s Encina power plant with fuel and helped keep the lights on across San Diego County soon will be history.
NRG/Cabrillo Power has applied to the California Coastal Commission for permission to remove the 20-inch-diameter steel-and-concrete pipeline that extends out from beneath the power plant on Carlsbad Boulevard more than half a mile into the ocean at a depth of roughly 60 feet.
The San Juan Water District showed the rest of California how to save water when the state needed the savings most. The supplier for eastern Sacramento and southern Placer counties cut consumption 41% from 2013 levels during the summer of 2015 — the height of a years-long drought. District residents let their acre-sized properties fade, livestock went thirsty, vineyards decayed. Then, the rain arrived. Regulators relaxed the rules and on went some spigots. This summer, the district used almost 600 million more gallons than it did last summer. Lacking a state mandate to conserve, residents’ daily consumption climbed to more than 500 gallons per person.
The San Diego Sustainable Landscapes Program partnership is offering a new grant-funded financial incentive for qualified participants who upgrade residential turf lawns to landscapes that provide multiple environmental benefits. Incentive recipients are required to comply with a set of rigorous design criteria that includes water-efficient plants and irrigation equipment, rainwater capture and detention features, and soil amendments to improve water efficiency. Qualified applicants can receive up to $1.75 per square foot toward eligible project costs for upgrading 500 to 3,000 square feet of existing turf areas.
hree San Diego political consultants have formed a new advertising and PR agency offering public affairs consulting, strategic planning, coalition building and crisis communications services.Tony Manolatos, principal of Apex Strategies, has joined with Bob Nelson and Kelly Murphy Lamkin, principals of BNA Communications, to form Manolatos Nelson Murphy Advertising & Public Relations. The firm’s current list of clients includes 7-Eleven, Community Housing Works, the Greater San Diego Association of Realtors, the San Diego County Apartment Association and the San Diego County Taxpayers Association.
It’s a good deal if you can get it: Some North County water customers are paying less for their water than it’s worth.
The Vallecitos Water District – which provides water to 97,000 people in and around San Marcos – has kept rates so low it’s now selling water at a loss.
The shenanigans within the small district offer a window into the lengths some California water officials will go to avoid raising rates.
In Vallecitos, the low rates have become an issue in this fall’s water board elections.
