You are now in San Diego County category.

The Salton Sea has gone from a midcentury vacation spot for movie stars to a post-apocalyptic desert with mounds of dead fish here, gurgling “mud pots” there, blasts from a military bombing range on the horizon and sulfuric stench everywhere.

The worst is yet to come. California’s largest lake (350 square miles) is about to be turned into a toxic dust bowl with potentially catastrophic health consequences for about 650,000 people who live in and around the sprawling drainage basin.

Although recent rains have been a welcome sight in California, drought conditions continue to increase fire danger prompting Cal Fire to suspend burn permits in San Diego and Imperial counties.

This suspension takes effect immediately and bans all residential outdoor burning of landscape debris like branches and leaves. “San Diego lives with the threat of wildfire year round and it is critical that the public do their part to be extra fire safe when outdoors” said Cal Fire Chief Tony Mecham.

 

The long-delayed and hotly contested Gregory Canyon Landfill doesn’t appear to be getting any closer to obtaining all of the permits still needed before construction of the dump south of state Route 76 near Pala could begin.

Work has yet to even begin on a permit needed from the county’s Air Pollution Control District because the new owners have yet to complete the necessary paperwork. Sovereign Capital Management Group, a San Diego-based private equity firm that took over the company last year, did however pay overdue fees last year with the intention of restarting the process.

Over a decade ago, Poseidon Water came to Orange County and began applying for permits to build a desalination plant in Huntington Beach to turn sea water into drinking water. The process stalled for years. The proposed plant would only produce about eight percent of Orange County’s water needs, would be nearly twice as expensive as other water, required a massive amount of energy and had numerous environmental impacts. To many decision-makers, it seemed like an option only worthy of consideration as a last resort; definitely not worth the billion-dollar plus price tag for ratepayers.

As water agencies throughout the state adjust to new rules regarding conservation, the State Water Resources Control Board this week issued figures for April indicating that Californians continued to cut water consumption.

Water use was reduced statewide by 26.1% compared with the same month in 2013, the year the state board set for comparison purposes.

The news came as Laguna Beach County and South Coast water, as well as districts throughout the state, are preparing to submit revised conservation targets to the board that prove they can supply their customers with enough water for the next three years, assuming drought conditions persist.