You are now in San Diego County category.

These are big shoes to fill: a man who knew that water was California’s new gold rush and who helped create the California State Water Project in order to quench the thirst of a growing California population and power up the state’s role as America’s biggest farm. He also oversaw the building-out of the freeway system for mass transit and was a leader who expanded the university level public education system, enabling Californians to grow and develop the native brainpower of Golden Staters.

The San Diego region stepped up to the challenge of unprecedented state water-use mandates over the last year by reducing water use 22 percent compared to 2013. That phenomenal effort allowed the region to store 100,000 acre-feet of water behind the newly raised San Vicente Dam for future use. Thank you to everyone who helped. State water-use targets have been lifted thanks to our regional investments in water supply reliability, but the work isn’t done. In fact, in late July, the San Diego County Water Authority launched its Live WaterSmart campaign to enhance our region’s role as a leader in water-use efficiency.

Water agencies across California are relaxing the water use restrictions they imposed last year. But what does that mean for you? In San Diego County, there was basically enough water despite the drought to meet the region’s demands, but people still obeyed Gov. Jerry Brown’s mandate to cut water use by 25 percent. Now that winter snow and rain prompted the state to ease drought regulations, the biggest benefit may be to homeowners with lawns.

California has never been a stranger to environmental justice problems – at one point or another our communities, including farmworkers, families and students have had to fight against the health impacts caused by poisons in pesticides, persistent industrial contaminants produced by refineries, decades of urban oil drilling and toxic battery recycling operating next to their homes and schools, as well as fracking and poor air quality, to name a few..

The San Diego County Water Authority (CWA) annually develops an Aqueduct Operating Plan which was presented to the CWA’s Engineering and Operations Committee during the committee’s June 25 meeting, and the CWA plans to shut down its three Second Aqueduct pipelines which cross State Route 76 for inspection of the new relining. The presentation, which was a non-voting item for the committee and full CWA board, covered the Aqueduct Operating Plan (AOP) for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2016, and ending June 30, 2017.