San Diego’s infamous Lake Hodges was reopened to the community after being closed since mid-2022 due to critical repair work of the Hodges Reservoir Dam.
The City of San Diego officials announced that Lake Hodges would reopen on Wednesday, May 31, but only on Wednesdays, Saturdays, and Sundays from sunrise to sunset.
Last fall, before the epic, near-biblical rains of early 2023 pushed California’s historic drought off our collective radar, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power announced a pilot water-conservation program that sounded too good to be true.
According to the announcement, for just $24, single-family homeowners in the city would be able to track real-time water usage, detect leaks and create a water budget from a smartphone app using a Wi-Fi-enabled, easy-to-install Flume water-meter sensor.
An Assembly bill introduced late last week would require a countywide vote before two agricultural districts in north San Diego County could leave the San Diego County Water Authority.
Assembly Bill 530, introduced Thursday by Tasha Boerner Horvath of Encinitas, would amend California’s Water Authority Act, to require a majority vote in both the separating district and the county to complete a detachment.
In a historic consensus, California, alongside the six other states that rely on the Colorado River for survival, announced an agreement last week for a plan to cut back water usage over the next three years.
The proposal drafted by the three lower basin states – California, Arizona and Nevada – would cut water use from the river by at least 3 million acre-feet by the end of 2026 through conservation to prevent the river’s reservoirs from falling to critically low levels.
The Supreme Court’s landmark decision scaling back federal protections for many wetlands and streams has drawn criticism from scientists and environmental advocates, who say the gutting of safeguards will jeopardize water quality throughout the arid West.
California’s water regulators say the ruling will be harmful for protections nationwide, but the more stringent state protections of wetlands won’t be affected.
San Diego leaders have directed the region’s water wholesaler to pinch every penny this year in the agency’s $1.8 billion budget, as ratepayers continue to grapple with ever-higher utility bills.
The San Diego County Water Authority has in response made substantial changes to its spending plan, looking to cut several positions and delay about $48 million in capital projects, including a pumped hydropower facility at San Vicente Dam.
“Thanks for Planting Me!” encourages more widespread adoption of sustainable landscapes to prepare the Southern California region for a hotter and drier climate.
The “Thanks for Planting Me!” summer campaign offers gratitude to the hundreds of thousands of San Diegans who have transformed their landscapes using low-water and native plants as part of a larger effort to use water more efficiently. Thanks for Planting Me! also is intended to show resident the WaterSmart advantages of embracing regenerative low-water landscapes as climate change stresses water supplies across the Southwest.
Valhalla High School senior Lily Martinez and Grossmont High School senior Stephen Abkin are the 2023 recipients of the Helix Water District’s Robert D. Friedgen and Dr. Lillian M. Childs college scholarships. Martinez and Abkin were presented with their $1,000 scholarships at the May Board of Directors meeting.
Ventura has been awarded federal loans covering half the costs for a program to convert treated wastewater into safe drinking water and reduce discharges of effluent into the Santa Clara River estuary.
Speaking at a news conference Tuesday at the city’s water reclamation plant, officials said the venture will benefit the environment, boost water supplies by up to 20% and protect the community against drought.
Ten talented student artists were honored for their winning work in the annual student poster contest at the May 17 Helix Water District board meeting. The students created their winning posters to visually depict the theme “Being Water Wise Is.”
The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California holds the regional poster contest to increase student awareness about water. Kindergarten through eighth-grade students in local district schools are eligible to compete. This year, 453 students from 24 schools within the Helix Water District Service area submitted posters depicting how to use water wisely.
