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As plans move forward for a massive desalination plan in Rosarito Beach, a proposed pipeline to carry some of that water to San Diego County is undergoing scrutiny by the U.S. State Department. Through October 14, members of the public are invited to comment on whether the project proposed by the Otay Water District is the national interest. The department recently concluded its final environmental review of the pipeline. Because the structure would cross an international border, the department must evaluate the project before a Presidential Permit can be issued.

Don’t pull out your fall wardrobe just yet. Southern California felt more like summer than autumn Monday, thanks to triple-digit temperatures and powerful Santa Ana winds. The mercury reached a sizzling 104 degrees in downtown Los Angeles, higher than many inland locations that are typically 10 or more degrees warmer during the hotter parts of the year. But it was hot all over the place.The all-time recorded high in Oxnard had been 104 degrees in 1939, but the mercury Monday peaked at 105 degrees. The average high temperature in Oxnard this time of year is 74 degrees, according to Intellicast.

The trees are dying. The forests are not.This distinction is getting lost in all the angst over the tree die-off in the central Sierra, coastal ranges and other forests of California. Players ranging from the Forest Service to CalFire to Sen. Dianne Feinstein and other public officials are ignoring this key fact in their rush to do something, anything, about the dying trees.

San Diego’s fountains are flowing again, after the state eased drought restrictions that were in place for more than a year. As of Aug. 1 in the city of San Diego, water restrictions dropped from Level 2 to Level 1, signaling a shift from mandatory to voluntary water restrictions in many cases. The only restriction on fountains is that they use recirculating water, a near-universal design that dates back to electrical pumps more than a century ago. Other water agencies have taken similar actions. Level 2 restrictions lasted from Nov. 1, 2014, to June 30, 2016, said Luis Generoso, the city’s water conservation program manager.

San Dieguito Water District representative Mark Muir was Thursday elected chairman of the San Diego County Water Authority Board of Directors. Muir, an Encinitas councilman, succeeds Mark Weston, who chaired the 36-seat SDCWA board for two years during the height of the drought. “While supply conditions have improved this year, our region still faces many important water-related issues and challenges,” Muir said.