After serving for the last two years as the vice chair of the Water Authority’s board of directors, I am eagerly anticipating the next two years as chair after the board elected me to that position on Sept. 22. The Water Authority has a history of exemplary board leadership stretching back decades, and outgoing chair Mark Weston has upheld that tradition in every sense.
As California faces the daunting prospect of its sixth straight year of drought, regulators are preparing to roll out the state’s first-ever permanent “water budgets” aimed at slashing consumption on a district-by-district basis.The idea is to determine each water district’s allowable supply by establishing customized targets for indoor use and outdoor landscaping, along with adjustments for weather differences in various parts of the state and between coastal versus inland communities.
The Southland is well-positioned to weather a sixth year of drought, Metropolitan Water District officials said Oct. 10, but they warned that consumers and business still need to do their share to conserve. “The reality is that California is still in a drought. We’re just not in a state of emergency,” MWD board Chairman Randy Record said. “Heading into 2017, we’re hoping to build on the supply momentum created by Southern California’s ongoing water-saving efforts and improved storage conditions this year.”
A second storm fueled in part by a typhoon hit California’s border with Oregon on Saturday with heavy rain and gusty winds as it made its way south. After an overnight lull, rain returned to Eureka and nearby cities, where winds at 40 mph and gusts up to 70 mph were recorded in the highest points. Officials in Del Norte and Humboldt counties provided sand and sandbags for residents to protect against flooding, and the Coast Guard warned of swells up to 25 feet and urged people to avoid low-lying beaches and other coastal areas.
The Bonsall Unified School District took advantage of a Metropolitan Water District of Southern California rebate program to replace its 13 irrigation controllers with programmable irrigation controllers at no direct cost to the school district. MWD has a Public Agency Landscape rebate program, and the PAL rebate was used to fund the $33,439.12 cost to upgrade the irrigation controllers on the sites of the district administration building, the Bonsall Community Center, Bonsall Elementary School, Bonsall West Elementary School, and the campus which includes Sullivan Middle School and Bonsall High School.
Raftelis Financial Consultants, Inc., has been chosen to assist the Fallbrook Public Utility District with the development of a rate study and a ten-year financial plan. FPUD’s board voted 5-0 September 26 to authorize a contract for up to $106,162 with Raftelis, which is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, and has offices in Los Angeles and Murrieta. The FPUD action also authorized an additional $30,000 for short-term staffing support if necessary. “We expect by the end of the year, November/December, the initial results will go back to the board,” said FPUD general manager Brian Brady.
Raftelis Financial Consultants, Inc., has been chosen to assist the Fallbrook Public Utility District with the development of a rate study and a ten-year financial plan. FPUD’s board voted 5-0 September 26 to authorize a contract for up to $106,162 with Raftelis, which is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, and has offices in Los Angeles and Murrieta. The FPUD action also authorized an additional $30,000 for short-term staffing support if necessary. “We expect by the end of the year, November/December, the initial results will go back to the board,” said FPUD general manager Brian Brady.
When you visit your local coffee shop and hand over $5, the barista gives you the drink you paid for. If you only got coffee half the time you paid, or you got saddled with bills for other customers, you would quickly find another café. The same approach must now be applied to a complex challenge with statewide implications — the water reliability and environmental issues in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Bay-Delta.
It’s called the California WaterFix. The project, formerly known as the Bay Delta Conservation Plan, would build two massive tunnels beneath the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta, replacing the northern portion of the State Water Project, a 600-mile-long system of tunnels, reservoirs and canals that moves water from Northern to Southern California. The tunnel proposal has been in the works for years, and similar ideas have been kicked around for decades.
La Niña, a phenomenon marked by the cooling of water in the equatorial Pacific, is a major driving force behind weather around the globe. Just last month, the forecast was neutral, which meant chances of Los Angeles getting its average of 15 inches of precipitation looked good. But the new report points to a 70 percent chance of La Niña development in the fall, sloping to 55 percent in the winter. That might mean a drier, warmer winter in the southern tier of the U.S., which doesn’t bode well for SoCal as it enters its sixth year of drought.
