You are now in San Diego County category.

Olivenhain Municipal Water District and Home Depot have once again teamed up to kick off the spring season with the semi-annual Garden-Friendly Plant Sale and Fair on Saturday, April 30 at the Encinitas Home Depot. All area residents are invited to attend this popular event, which runs from 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.

With California’s historic drought in its fifth year, adjusting landscapes to reduce water consumption is important as ever. Fair attendees can find tremendous value in consulting landscape industry experts who will be on hand to offer free advice on water-efficient landscape design and irrigation.

(Media Coverage editor’s note: This blog post previously contained erroneous information about San Diego County Water Authority operational activity at El Capitan Reservoir. The error has since been corrected by the post author.)

The city of San Diego had been drafting water from El Capitan at a rate of a little more than 1 foot per week since March 5th, leaving the lake lower than it had been in over a decade. However, the drafting stopped on April 7th, and the water level has leveled off about 5 vertical feet higher than the minimum operating level for the launch ramp to be usable.

 

Does California have too much water? Seriously. Because our actions are sending peculiar messages. Even the State Water Board has backed off on conservation targets for some water agencies.

It’s true, rains have replenished much of Northern California’s reservoirs and Governor Brown’s mandated 25% water restrictions made a serious dent in our water binge. A whopping 1.1 million acre-feet of water was saved, or rather, not wasted, thanks to these restrictions.

Political agencies and nonprofits in the Central Valley say the Metropolitan District of Southern California’s $175 million purchase of four islands in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta may cause significant environmental changes and sued to block the sale.

San Joaquin and Contra Costa counties, Central Delta Water Agency, Contra Costa County Water Agency and Food & Water Watch and the Planning and Conservation League sued the district on April 15 in San Joaquin County Superior Court, seeking a court order blocking Metropolitan District of Southern California’s purchase of 20,369 acres of property — including five delta islands and tracts — until an environmental review is satisfied.

Even though the California Department of Water Resources reports a near normal snow pack after four years of little snow, the governor’s office is not ready to turn on the rinse-off showers at local state beaches yet.

The beach showers at Silver Strand, Torrey Pines, Cardiff, and South Carlsbad, were shut down last July. Later in the year, so were some campground showers and beach restroom sinks.