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Free Landscaping Videos Bring Water Savings

/in /by /The San Diego Union-Tribune by By Karla Peterson Quoted: Joni German
When newcomers to the San Diego County Water Authority’s WaterSmart landscaping program tackle the prospect of giving their yards a water-saving makeover, their first questions aren’t about what they should tear out and what they should plant instead. It turns out their first questions are much more basic. Primal, even.
“Who can do this for me? Who can I hire? Can I really do this myself?” said Joni German, assistant water resources specialist for the San Diego County Water Authority.
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California Water Storage Projects Receive Awards

/in /by /civil + structural ENGINEER (Fayetteville, Ark.) Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

The Emergency & Carryover Storage Project (E&CSP) in San Diego is one of the most important infrastructure projects constructed in the United States in the last century. In the naturally dry and arid regions of southern California, 80 percent of the water is imported from hundreds of miles away from more abundant resources in Northern California and the Colorado River.  This leaves all of southern California, especially the San Diego region, susceptible to disruptions in the water delivery system, namely from earthquakes, statewide system failures, or extreme droughts and other water shortages.

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Drought-Ridden L.A. Tries Rainmakers to Tap Storm Clouds

/in /by /Scientific American (Washington, D.C.)by David Biello

Los Angeles has officially stopped trying to make it rain—for now. During three separate storms in the past two months, contract workers for the L.A. County Department of Public Works ignited 25 special flares in the hills above Pasadena, sending columns of glittering smoke into the clouds to give them a literal silver lining that could boost precipitation.

The efforts mark the first time since 2002 that the parched metropolis has seeded clouds in an attempt to enhance rainfall; it is currently enduring a nearly five-year-long drought with this winter’s rainfall at just 40 percent of the usual amount.

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Farmers Innovate to Get More Crop Per Drop

/in /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby By Andy Lyall

During your next meal, I encourage you to look down at your plate. More closely. No matter if you live in San Diego or Baltimore, chances are, one or more of the foods on that plate was grown or raised right here in California. With nearly half of American-grown nuts, fruits and vegetables produced in California, the state is on your plate.

But the delicious and diverse array of California food available to us is only half the story.

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U-T Attorney Wins $160,000 in Turf Grant Case

/in /by /The San Diego Union-Tribune by By Ricky Young

An attorney for The San Diego Union-Tribune has been awarded more than $160,000 in legal fees for a case in which she successfully argued that information about recipients of turf removal grants should be a matter of public record.

The grants, totaling $340 million, were given out by the Metropolitan Water District and its members agencies throughout Southern California to encourage people to replace lawns with drought-resistant landscape amid drought.

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El Niño Rains Added Fuel to California’s Upcoming Fire Season, Experts Say

/in /by /Los Angeles Times by By Joseph Serna

As he drove east of Fresno to the next Wildfire Awareness Week event in Kern County on Wednesday, Cal Fire Chief Ken Pimlott turned his gaze toward the browning landscape.

“I’m looking at grass that’s 2 feet tall easily, and it’s already dead,” Pimlott said. Meanwhile, far away in the southern and central Sierra Nevada, foliage on 29 million trees infested with bark beetles are turning orange and red and dying, with countless more stretching north toward Sacramento expected to meet a similar fate over the next year.

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San Andreas fault ‘locked, loaded and ready to roll’ with big earthquake, expert says

/in /by /The Los Angeles Timesby Rong-Gong Lin II

Southern California’s section of the San Andreas fault is “locked, loaded and ready to roll,” a leading earthquake scientist said Wednesday at the National Earthquake Conference in Long Beach.

The San Andreas fault is one of California’s most dangerous, and is the state’s longest fault. Yet for Southern California, the last big earthquake to strike the southern San Andreas was in 1857, when a magnitude 7.9 earthquake ruptured an astonishing 185 miles between Monterey County and the San Gabriel Mountains near Los Angeles.

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Cities Look for New Ways to Meet Demand for Water

/in /by /MarketWatch (San Francisco)by By Jim Carlton Quoted: Bob Yamada and Maureen Stapleton

A quarter-century ago, San Diego and its suburbs imported 95% of their water supplies. Thanks to investments in desalination and other efforts to boost supplies, that figure has already dropped to 57% and is projected to fall to just 18% sometime in the next two decades.

San Diego has gone from being one of the most vulnerable areas of California during drought to one of the best prepared — and in so doing has become a model for the future of water use in cities.

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State rallies on drought water conservation

/in /by /The San Diego Union~Tribuneby Joshua Emerson Smith Quoted: Bob Yamada

Water conservation in San Diego County and across the state bounced back substantially in March after a weak showing during several previous months.

On average, California’s urban water users saved a robust 24.3 percent in March as compared with just 12 percent the month before. The savings are measured against corresponding months in 2013, the benchmark year set by Gov. Jerry Brown’s emergency drought order.

Water suppliers in San Diego County saved an average of about 17 percent in March. That was a significant improvement from February, when many districts didn’t conserve any water or increased their consumption.

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Rain to Return to Southern California Through the Weekend

/in /by /The Sun (San Bernardino) by By Doug Saunders

Another bout of rainy weather is expected to drench the Southland beginning late Wednesday. According to the National Weather Service, a low pressure system will bring rounds of showers and thunderstorms into Southern California over the next few days.

Weather experts have forecast drizzle on Wednesday growing to a 40-percent chance of showers Thursday evening and increasing through Sunday across the San Bernardino area and the Inland Valley, according to the NWS website. “A few thunderstorms could occur… especially Friday when the system is overhead,” according to an NWS report.

 

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