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San Diego County’s Desal Facility to get $170M Federal Loan to Help with Costly Overhaul

/in , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby Joshua Emerson Smith Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

The desalination plant in Carlsbad will receive $170 million in federal financing to upgrade its facility and meet environmental requirements, officials announced this week.

The low-interest loan is intended to help the plant’s owner, Poseidon Resources, satisfy state regulations for protecting fish and other marine life at the Claude “Bud” Lewis plant. The money, awarded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, is estimated to save ratepayers about $54 million.

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Districts Searching for Lower Water Rates Amid a Potential 14% Hike

/in , /by /NBC 7 San Diegoby Allison Ash Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

Talk of a 14% increase in the cost of water is the last straw for the agricultural communities of Fallbrook and Rainbow.

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Santa Monica Uses Innovative Water Recycling Facility to Capture and Store Rainwater

/in , /by /Santa Monica Mirror

Santa Monica has been using a pioneering water recycling facility since November to capture rain and store it underground for future use. As Southern California has been experiencing seemingly constant rainfall, the city has been capturing stormwater, urban runoff, and municipal wastewater and purifying it for potable reuse. This first-of-its-kind facility is located beneath a parking lot and features a 1.5-million-gallon stormwater harvesting tank and a one-million-gallon-per-day advanced water treatment facility. The recycled water can be used for irrigation, toilet flushing in buildings that have dual plumbing, and to recharge groundwater aquifers.

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Oceanside Declares Local Emergency, Will Seek State & Federal Funding For Storm Response

/in , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby Phil Diehl

Oceanside declared a local emergency this week in hopes of getting state and possibly federal money to cover the repair costs for sinkholes, landslides, flooding and a sewage spill caused by the recent series of storms.

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With 13 Inches of Rain This Wet Season, San Diego County is Nearly Drought-Free

/in , , /by /NBC 7 San Diego by Jeanette Quezada

With an exceptionally rainy season for California, much of the state is free from drought, including most of San Diego County, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.

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SDCWA Begins FY ’24-25 Budget Process

/in , /by /San Diego Business Journalby George Lurie Quoted: Sandra Kerl

The San Diego County Water Authority (SDCWA) last week started a months-long public process to refine its next two-year budget and draft a preliminary proposed rate increase for 2024. The average rates charged by the Water Authority are currently projected to rise by approximately 14% next year, though agency staff and board members are assessing strategies to lower the number.

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Desert Farmers Defend Maligned Alfalfa Production

/in , , /by /Ag Alertby Caleb Hampton

The Imperial Valley, a vast grid of greens, browns and yellows, produces dozens of crops. But two visual features define the valley: open channels carrying water from the Colorado River and blocks of hay that tower above the irrigation channels.

Forage crops such as alfalfa, sudangrass and bermudagrass cover more than half the Imperial Valley’s farmland. “From the growers’ perspective, alfalfa is their best crop,” said Ali Montazar, University of California Cooperative Extension irrigation and water management advisor for Imperial, Riverside and San Diego counties.

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LA Reuses Lots of Stormwater, but Wants to Save More

/in , , /by /KCRWby Caleigh Wells

Hours after another storm soaked Southern California, LA County’s principal stormwater engineer Sterling Klippel stands at the base of the San Gabriel Dam, looking like a kid in a candy store. He gazes in awe at the thousands of gallons of stormwater rushing through this dam every second.

“Just this October, this facility was completely drained,” he says.

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Often-Dry Twitchell Reservoir East of Santa Maria Filling Up to Dramatically High Level

/in , , /by /KEYT TVby Dave Alley

Recent wet weather is helping fill up the often-dry Twitchell Reservoir to a dramatically high level not seen in a quarter century.

As of Wednesday, the reservoir located about 10 miles east of Santa Maria, along the Northern Santa Barbara and South San Luis Obispo county line, measured at 57% capacity, a remarkable amount since it was only 1% capacity in early January.

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Is This San Diego’s Rainiest ‘Water Year’ on Record?

/in , , /by /Fox 5 San Diegoby Christy Simeral

This year has been off to a rainy start for much of California, and San Diego is no exception.

With all the wet weather the region has experienced as of late, San Diegans may be surprised to learn that when it comes to the number of (measurable) rain days, these last few months haven’t exactly shattered records.

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