What seemed like an internal dispute among San Diego County water agencies is now reverberating in Sacramento and Los Angeles, potentially raising the stakes in the outcome.
At issue is the effort by two small North County water districts to get out from under the San Diego County Water Authority umbrella and hook up with an agency in Riverside County to obtain cheaper water.
Hoping to alleviate a perennial tug-of-war between the Imperial Irrigation District (IID) Directors and farmers on timely payments for conserved water, the IID voted to provide revenue certainty to the On-Farm Efficiency Conservation Program (OFECP) by approving $310.50/AF payment rate for all the 2023 conservation and authorize a budget amendment to increase the 2023 budget by $9.936 million at the regular meeting Tuesday, June 6.
The IID had agreed to a single payment rate not to exceed the $310.50/AF, and this would prorate the fixed budget of $41,399,800 to create at least 133,333 AF of conserved water, back in November 2022.
Two reservoirs in San Diego County are almost 100% full, according to data released Monday. The City of San Diego updated its water levels information page on June 5, showing the Barrett Reservoir in Jamul and the Lower Otay Reservoir in Chula Vista are both over 96% filled. At its max capacity, the Barrett Reservoir would have a depth of 160.40 feet. The most recent measurements show it’s 96.5% full, according to the city.
Just before 4 p.m. on June 5, the San Diego County Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO) voted 5 to 3 to table the vote on the FPUD/RMWD detachment from San Diego Water Authority until their Aug. 7, 2023 meeting.
County Supervisor and LAFCO Director Jim Desmond made a motion for an “option 2” for detachment. Director Willis seconded the motion and then Director Jo Mackenzie asked for a 5-minute break. Upon returning, Director Joel Anderson motioned for the vote to be tabled for 60 days.
Padre Dam Water District’s board is fed up with having to pay higher rates for the water it purchases from the San Diego County Water Authority, and voted unanimously not to go along with any rate hike unless the CWA gets serious about its long-range planning.
The five-member board took the vote after listening to a presentation by CEO Kyle Swanson (photo, right)about CWA raising the wholesale rate charged to member water agencies next year by a range between 8.2 to 12.7 percent. At one point, CWA was considering increasing to about 13 percent, but the range is ever-changing and unknowable at the current time, Swanson said.
Twelve students have won the 2023 City of Escondido Student Poster Contest by illustrating the theme, “Love Water, Save Water.”
Winners have the opportunity to have their work featured in a regional North San Diego County water agencies calendar. First, second, and third-place winners will be featured in next year’s regional calendar.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office announced Thursday that 44 statewide drought and flood projects will receive millions of dollars in Department of Water Resources grants.
In total, $217 million will be directed to increase water supply, combat flooding, and expand new water storage and conservation initiatives. An additional $71 million will be used to respond to local drought impacts.
Long Beach Utilities commissioners met again Thursday to discuss a potential rate hike for water, which could be as high as 10% next year as the department deals with declining sales due to customer conservation, increasing costs and an expanding capital investment plan that could, in the long term, increase the city’s supply of less expensive groundwater.
A staff-recommended hike of 10% for water rates next year would amount to a $5.69 monthly increase for the average customer, according to the department. However, an alternate increase of 9% that was requested at the commission’s last meeting would add about $5.13 to the monthly bill.
Imperial Beach urgently needs federal funding to put an end to the Tijuana River’s ongoing sewage spill that’s kept portions of the city’s beaches closed, Mayor Paloma Aguirre wrote in a letter to the White House.
Seeking a federal state of emergency status for the continued pollution, Mayor Aguirre called on the Biden administration to declare the emergency for the shoreline of Imperial Beach and the Tijuana River Valley. Such a proclamation would expedite funding and projects across federal agencies to tackle the source of the issue.
The shrinking and drying out of the Salton Sea has reduced stress on the San Andreas Fault, possibly reducing the frequency and severity of earthquakes in Southern California, according to research from San Diego State University and Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
The study, published Wednesday in the journal Nature, found that the reduced stress on the fault from a significantly lesser amount of water may be delaying the next “big one.”
