San Diego County / Southern California

The latest news and analysis covering water issues in the San Diego County region and Southern California.

Vallecitos Water District Smokes Out Wastewater System Problems

Problems in wastewater systems can’t hide behind a smokescreen at the Vallecitos Water District. The district’s Systems Collection Department routinely performs “smoke testing” of its wastewater system. This technique can easily locate flows caused by broken or incorrectly installed sewer pipes, lateral connections, or missing/broken clean-out caps. The test is performed by introducing smoke, comprised […]

Opinion: The Cadiz Project To Drain The Desert Is A Bad Idea

There’s a tiny green patch of Mojave Desert, past Barstow but before Needles, north of Joshua Tree National Park and south of the Mojave National Preserve, where groundwater pumped from an aquifer under the arid landscape irrigates several hundred acres of crops. Rainfall that seeps from the adjacent mountains is sporadic, but sufficient to replenish […]

Pumped Hydro With Better Financing Can Compete With Batteries

Lazard’s well-known Levelized Cost of Storage analysis does not cover pumped hydro storage, and a pumped hydro cost estimate from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory is not expected until late this year, as a follow-up to an interim report. Beating them to the punch is a report by UC San Diego professor David Victor and […]

San Diego Water Department Ranks Low In National Customer-Satisfaction Survey

Customers in Fresno are much happier with their water service than residents of San Diego. So are ratepayers in Sacramento, Los Angeles, Honolulu and Denver. In fact, a new survey found only one water provider in the western United States less popular than the San Diego Water Department — the San Jose Water Co., a […]