You are now in San Diego County category.

The storm had gathered power for days as it crossed the Northern Pacific, and now its outer band was uppercutting the coast. By the time Eric Batman arrived at work at 7 Monday morning, a hard west wind was driving rain and hail sideways against windows. Thunder reverberated across the L.A. Basin.

Batman reveled in El Niño’s long-overdue rumbling. His job, as senior civil engineer for the county Department of Public Works, is to keep as much rain as possible from escaping to the ocean.

In response to the recently launched Poseidon desalination plant in Carlsbad, state officials have agreed to dramatically ease water conservation goals in San Diego for almost all residential water users. The adjustments will nearly cut in half required water savings throughout the region, the San Diego County Water Authority announced Thursday.

Water managers have complained that state regulators failed to recognize their years-long effort to secure a more stable inventory of local water sources, including what is now the largest desalination facility of its kind in the United States.

As part of the regional effort to reduce water waste, the San Diego County Water Authority and its member agencies are again partnering with the local chapter of the Plumbing-Heating-Cooling Contractors Association during national Fix a Leak Week, March 14-20, to make fixing water leaks less costly for residents and businesses.

Throughout Fix a Leak Week, participating contractors will offer customers a 10 percent discount, up to $100, on products and services related to fixing leaks at homes and businesses in the San Diego region.

The Metropolitan Water District Tuesday unveiled a two- year plan in which Imperial County farmers will be paid not to grow crops on a portion of their land so that water can be shipped to the Southland.

Beginning in April, farmers in the southeastern corner of California will voluntarily skip their spring and summer plantings and transfer saved Colorado River water to Southern California, under the pilot program approved in January and revised Tuesday by MWD’s board of directors.The plan will provide up to 4,570 acre-feet of transferable water each year, according to MWD board Chairman Randy Record.

Despite recent rainstorms, San Diego’s drought continues and landscape architects worry that families and businesses are fighting back by replacing lawns with fake grass.

Instead, there’s a different plant-based path, a “San Diego Style” that favors succulents, native grasses and other materials appropriate to the Southern California climate, say the experts. Designers, contractors, planners and regulators will gather at the eighth annual seminar on sustainable turf and landscape open to the public Thursday at Cuyamaca College in Rancho San Diego and sponsored by the Ornamental Horticulture Department.