Over the past year, eleven billion gallons of water have been wasted/released from the Hodges Reservoir.
The City of San Diego said it is under a state order to keep the water level low in the lake. Water districts said the city is to blame because the San Diego Public Utilities Department failed to maintain the dam for decades.
A bill that would have made it harder for two water districts to break up with the San Diego County Water Authority lost a bit of steam late last week.
What happened: The state Senate Appropriations Committee passed AB 399 to the Senate floor for debate but got rid of a clause that would have allowed the bill to become law more quickly.
The bill would require that voters across the county approve any water district’s desire to leave the Water Authority. And that clause was important to the bill’s supporters because it would have stopped two districts from leaving.
Clouds of thick white dust billowed through Death Valley National Park this week as crews maneuvered bulldozers and Big Cats to clear the remnants of a rare and record-breaking tropical storm.
On Aug. 20, Tropical Storm Hilary tore through the park near the border of Nevada, dropping more than a year’s worth of rain — 2.2 inches — in one day, forever transforming one of the hottest and driest places on Earth.
For years, environmentalists have argued that the Colorado River should be allowed to flow freely across the Utah-Arizona border, saying that letting water pass around Glen Canyon Dam — and draining the giant Lake Powell reservoir — would improve the shrinking river’s health.
Now, as climate change increases the strains on the river, this controversial proposal is receiving support from some surprising new allies: influential farmers in California’s Imperial Valley.
San Diego County supervisors have formally weighed in on a contentious — and increasingly costly — plan by two rural water districts to break away from a regional authority they say is too expensive.
The county board voted 3-1 this week in favor of a recommendation from Supervisor Joel Anderson to support state legislation that would require approval by a majority of all voters within the regional water authority — rather than only those residents of a breakaway district.
“This process would allow water customers of all (San Diego County Water Authority) member agencies to decide what is best for our region’s water future and the potential implications of their own water bills,” the former state senator told his board colleagues.
While the letter from Anderson to his board colleagues did not specifically mention the Boerner bill, the implication was clear.
The East County supervisor said county water authority members should not be able to withdraw from a broader group of water districts through a ballot measure limited to their own constituents.
Leaving the regional authority would unfairly stick fellow districts and their ratepayers with long-term capital costs, he said.
The county Board of Supervisors voted 3-1 Tuesday to support state legislation that would require a vote by all customers served by water districts within the San Diego County Water Authority before individual districts can leave the authority.
San Diego County Water Authority executives Tish Berge and Kelley Gage were promoted Monday by General Manager Dan Denham. Berge moves from assistant general manager to deputy general manager after two years in her prior post. Gage, who served as director of water resources the past five years, is now assistant general manager.
The San Diego county Board of Supervisors voted 3-1 Tuesday to support state legislation that would require a vote by all customers served by water districts within the County Water Authority before individual districts can leave the authority.
Proposed by Supervisor Joel Anderson in a board letter, the policy follows a July 10 decision from the San Diego Local Agency Formation Commission to allow the Rainbow Municipal Water District and Fallbrook Public Utility District to leave the water authority.
California is investing $3 million in an effort to allow researchers to predict when and where ocean waters near Imperial Beach may be contaminated.
The ocean off the coast of Imperial Beach has suffered decades of contamination which includes trash, toxic chemicals and untreated sewage runoff.
Residents in San Diego’s South Bay were left to deal with a strong odor after thousands of gallons of sewage spilled onto a roadway.
The International Boundary and Water Commission confirmed that about 20,000 gallons spilled onto Hollister Street on Monday afternoon.
