The City Council’s Environment Committee gave tentative approval Thursday to a proposal to ratchet back water-use restrictions, following reports of ample local supply.
If the change from a Level Two Drought Alert response to a Level One Drought Watch is given final approval by the full San Diego City Council at a future meeting, water conservation efforts would become voluntary, though city officials will continue to urge efficient use.
San Diego officials are considering ratcheting back water use restrictions and are scheduled to present their plans Thursday to the City Council’s Environment Committee. If the change from a Level Two Drought Alert response to a Level One Drought Watch is approved, water conservation efforts would be voluntary, allowing residents to water their lawns more than two days a week. City officials will still encourage residents to water no more than three days a week, and continue other conservation efforts.
Southern California’s smaller cities and large businesses must take the threat of a crippling earthquake far more seriously than they have been, a committee of business, public policy and utility leaders said Thursday, saying action is needed to “prevent the inevitable disaster from becoming a catastrophe.”
Despite strides made by the city of Los Angeles to focus on earthquake safety, Southern California still faces significant threats that haven’t been resolved.
The San Diego County Water Authority Board of Directors Thursday voted to raise rates 5.9 percent for treated drinking water and 6.4 percent for untreated irrigation water in 2017.
The Water Authority cited increasing expenses for imported water and the need to pass on higher costs for water from the desalination plant in Carlsbad. The SDCWA, which delivers water to 24 local agencies and districts that distribute to customers, also cited the impact of state-mandated conservation on its budget.
The Water Replenishment District of Southern California (WRD) has unanimously approved and signed an agreement with J.F. Shea Construction to build a $110 million state-of-the-art water treatment plant that will enable WRD to develop the first locally sustainable groundwater basins in California. “This is an exciting day,” said WRD Board of Directors President Willard H. Murray, Jr. “The Los Angeles region has a long and sometimes colorful history of importing water to quench our thirst. With this project WRD will be turning a corner in our water history.
The San Diego County Water Authority board of directors on Thursday voted to raise rates 6.4 percent for untreated water and 5.9 percent for treated water in 2017.
The water authority cited increasing expenses for imported water and the need to pass on higher costs for water from the desalination plant in Carlsbad. The water authority, which delivers water to 24 local agencies and districts that distribute to customers, also cited the impact of state-mandated conservation on its budget.
The San Diego County Water Authority Board of Directors today voted to raise rates 6.4 percent for untreated water and 5.9 percent for treated water in 2017.
The Water Authority cited increasing expenses for imported water and the need to pass on higher costs for water from the desalination plant in Carlsbad. The SDCWA, which delivers water to 24 local agencies and districts that distribute to customers, also cited the impact of state-mandated conservation on its budget.
Coachella Valley residents have slashed their water use nearly 25 percent over the past year in response to California’s historic drought. Now they face a new conservation mandate: zero percent.
No, the drought isn’t over: The entire state is abnormally dry and 43 percent of it suffers from “extreme” or “exceptional” drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. But with California’s reservoirs and snowpack in better shape than last year after a moderately wet winter, Gov. Jerry Brown ordered the state water board to relax the strict conservation targets it imposed last June.
It’s only June, but temperatures are headed into 90-degree range, and a major fire is already front page news (“Santa Barbara County fire at 7,811 acres, 45 percent contained,” June 18).
Because of the continuing California drought, authorities predicted another dangerous year, and the Sherpa Fire is one of 1,800 wildfires state and forest service firefighters have battled since January.
In a June 1 Letter to the Editor, “SLO County tackles the health effects of climate change,” rising temperatures, frequent wildfires and drought were included by San Luis Obispo County’s health officer, Penny Borenstein in a list of climate change-caused events that impact human health.
The thousands of acres burning across Southern California this week foreshadow what’s expected to be a severe wildfire season, the head of the U.S. Forest Service said.
Chief Thomas L. Tidwell predicts certain parts of the country — including Southern California and Arizona, where four large, uncontained fires are burning this week — will have active fire seasons, like Washington and California did last year.
Last year was one of the worst wildfire years since at least 1960, according to records kept by the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho. More than 10.1 million acres were charred in 68,151 incidents.
