The legislation would simplify the city of San Diego’s permitting process to operate the Point Loma Wastewater Treatment Plant, which will allow the city to move forward with its water-recycling project, Pure Water.
The program will supply half of San Diego’s drinking water by 2035 and help solidify the region’s water security amidst worsening conditions on the Colorado River.
The City of San Diego is repairing a major leak in a 36-inch water main off Black Mountain in Rancho Peñasquitos.
City workers had to bring in heavy equipment to dig down and locate the break in the water transmission line of Carmel Valley Road.
The city of San Diego has embarked in a multibillion dollar effort to recycle its wastewater into drinking water. It’s a project years in the making, but officials expect to complete the first phase in 2027.
This week on the podcast, Voice of San Diego’s social media pro Bella Ross recaps what she learned on a recent tour of the new facility. And she gets into why people don’t want to drink the recycled water — but also why they need to get over it.
Two local water districts have filed a lawsuit in North County court alleging the city of San Diego failed for years to maintain the Lake Hodges Dam.
The water districts allege they have lost $21 million due to the release of water from Lake Hodges in recent months.
Try driving up Morena Boulevard in Mission Valley, or north through Bay Park and Clairemont, and chances are you’ll be bottlenecked by an army of orange traffic cones demarking a huge construction project that will consume northern San Diego for years to come.
The city of San Diego is currently building a massive wastewater-to-drinking water recycling system – but it must tear up the streets to do it. The new pipe route tunnels from Morena Pump Station near the San Diego International Airport, then 10 miles north to University City and then another 8 miles to Miramar Reservoir, the final stop for all our transformed toilet water.
Ruby Dela Cruz from the City of San Diego and Raul Villalpando from the City of Escondido were two of eight individuals honored at the 95th Annual California Water Environment Association (CWEA) Awards.
Both have served their city for the past 23 years, and their awards recognize their contributions to enhancing California’s water environment.
Dela Cruz received the “Electrical Instrumentation Person of the Year” award, celebrating her achievements as the city’s Instrumentation and Control Supervisor.
Dela Cruz is responsible for supervising, training, and participating in the maintenance of the control systems and instrumentation of the North City Pure Water Facility, Pure Water Pump Station, and Dechlorination Facility.
As a supervisor, she appreciates being challenged in her role while simultaneously passing on her expertise to others.
“I enjoy troubleshooting electrical and electronic circuits because it sharpens my analytical thinking,” said Dela Cruz. “[And] I like imparting my knowledge and sharing my technical experience to my subordinates to help them achieve their aspirations and goals in their career.”
Yet, after over two decades of working for the City of San Diego, she acknowledges the people are what make the job.
“Everyone is treated as family,” said Dela Cruz. “Just like a family, nobody is perfect, but everyone is there for you when you need them. My superiors never fail to acknowledge my accomplishments and contributions to the group.”
City of Escondido winner Raul Villalpondo (center) with (L to R) Keith Hobson, Vice President, Water Environment Federation (WEF), FOX Strand; Victor Corrales, City of Escondido; Wastewater Operations Manager; Villalpondo; Kyle Morgan, City of Escondido Assistant Director of Utilities Wastewater; and Chuck Greely, CWEA past president, Dudek. Photo: CWEA
Similar to Dela Cruz, Raul Villalpando values the opportunity to pass along his knowledge and expertise to his newer colleagues. This attribute led his supervisors to push for his “Operator of the Year” award.
“He’s really been the main guy that’s been kind of passing along his knowledge, not just of wastewater, but of the plant itself,” said Victor Corrales, wastewater operations manager for the City of Escondido. “He’s setting an example to those newer operators of the value of staying at a place, watching and helping it grow.”
As a senior wastewater operator, Villalpando is one of four lead operators in charge of overseeing the City of Escondido’s wastewater plant. Every day, he works alongside electricians, mechanics, and other plant operators to ensure business runs smoothly. While he wears many hats around the plant, he considers this award a group effort.
“This award that I was lucky enough to win as an individual is for everyone on this team,” said Villalpando. “I oversee all those people, but those people worked hand-in-hand with me to win that. To be able to find a good core group of people to work with is the hardest and best thing to find, and I’m lucky to say I’ve found that.”
Founded in 1927, the CWEA is a not-for-profit association of 9,000-plus professionals in the wastewater industry. The association trains and certifies wastewater professionals, disseminates technical information and promotes sound policies to benefit society through protection and enhancement of the water environment.
For the past 95 years, the CWEA awards program has honored exemplary efforts of individuals and agencies throughout the state who are leaders in engineering, wastewater operations, collection systems, laboratory work, and pretreatment programs.
For more information about the California Water Environment Awards, visit awards.cwea.org
In recent years, the city of San Diego has released more than 11 billion gallons of freshwater from city-owned reservoirs into the ocean.
It has been done because many of the dams holding the water in are failing and have been placed on water restrictions to prevent a breach.
Now, the city of San Diego is looking to hire an outside consultant to manage its dam safety program for the next ten years at a price of up to $100 million.
When the region’s water importer said it was hurting for cash, the city of San Diego said: I’ll be your sugar daddy. That’s basically what happened last week after the San Diego County Water Authority – in charge of getting water from the Colorado River and northern California to San Diego – broke the news to its 22 customer water districts that its prices were going up 39 percent over the next two years. Mayor Todd Gloria pushed back on the increase, calling on his board members to find a way to soften the blow on San Diegans.
It’s been a rainy couple of years – and that means the region’s water importer and seller is hurting for cash. To help cover that gap, among other growing costs of its massive water infrastructure system, the San Diego County Water Authority proposed increasing water rates by up to 39 percent in the next two years.
Expect upcoming road closures and construction near SeaWorld — a $123 million project to update a water transmission system near the theme park and through Mission Valley begins this summer.
About 10 miles of water mains will be constructed between Interstate 805 and Sea World Drive, mainly on Friars Road, according to a city presentation. The city’s Active Transportation and Infrastructure Committee — made up of four city councilmembers — last week unanimously voted to move forward with hiring OHLA USA Inc. to begin construction.
