Tag Archive for: Imperial County

IID Files Opening Brief in Petition to Suspend DCP

/in , , /by /Imperial Valley Press (El Centro, Calif.)by Tom Bodus

Imperial Irrigation District made the first notable follow-up to its petition to hit the brakes on the Lower Basin Drought Contingency Plan for the Colorado River with an opening brief filed Wednesday.

IID originally filed the petition in Superior Court of Los Angeles County on April 18, 2019. The petition calls on the court to suspend approvals and actions related to the Lower Basin Drought Contingency Plan until such time an appropriate analysis of Metropolitan Water District of Southern California’s commitment to the plan has been completed in accordance with the California Environmental Quality Act.

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Unpaid Power Bills Continue to Plague District

/in , /by /Imperial Valley Press (El Centro, Calif.)by Michael Maresh

The Imperial Irrigation’s financial picture after the first six months was not a rosy one, and the district expects it to get worse as COVID-19 numbers continue to increase in the county.

When IID Assistant General Manager Sergio Quiroz presented the IID Board of Directors Tuesday with the district’s financial update, he pointed out the figures include January through March, before COVID-19 had fully impacted the district.

New Funds to Help Restore the Salton Sea

/in , , /by /NBC Palm Springsby Regina Yurrita

Despite pandemic related fiscal challenges, work on the Salton sea still remains a priority. Especially for Assemblymember Eduardo Garcia, from the 56th district, who helped get funds of over 47-million dollars for new river and Salton sea mitigation projects.

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IID Applauds New California State Budget

/in , , /by /KYMA-TV, Yuma, Arizonaby Lisa Sturgis

The Imperial Irrigation District is celebrating California’s new state budget. In spite of coronavirus-caused spending cuts, it will get the funding it needs for two important environmental projects.

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Imperial County Hits IID, Feds with Violation Notice for Salton Sea Air Pollution

/in , , /by /Palm Springs Desert Sun by Mark Olalde

The Imperial County Air Pollution Control District on Tuesday hit the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Imperial Irrigation District with notices of violation for ongoing pollution at a long-stalled Salton Sea restoration project.

The violations allege that the federal agency and the water district have only made sporadic attempts since 2016 to complete work at the several-hundred-acre Red Hill Bay site, “causing numerous instances of elevated levels of airborne dust.”

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A COVID-19 Hit to Public Power? For Some, it’s Not All Bad

/in , /by /Utility Diveby Matthew Bandyk

At a May meeting of the board of directors of the Brownsville, Texas, Board of Public Works, the utility’s director of finance Mike Perez made an announcement that was perhaps surprising in the middle of a pandemic.

“April was a good month,” Perez said. Revenue was up, in part due to customers staying home and using more electricity. Accounts receivable were “in line” with the same period a year ago, indicating that customers were mostly able to pay their bills. “We are not seeing anything alarming so far,” Perez said.

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IID, County Transitioning Workforces Back in House

/in , , /by /Imperial Valley Pressby Michael Maresh

Although COVID-19 cases continue to skyrocket locally, both Imperial County and the Imperial Irrigation District have started transitioning from telecommuting to having their employees return to their usual work sites.

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IID Begins Second Wave of Sheltering Employees at Work

/in , , /by /NBC Palm Springsby Taylor Martinez

Imperial Irrigation District, California’s third largest public power provider and the largest irrigation district in the nation, will be extending its voluntary on-site shelter-in-place program at designated critical facilities for a core group of employees.

To keep employees safe and to ensure that the district’s water and energy systems remain operational during the COVID-19 pandemic, 32 district employees have been living and working at their job sites since April 25.

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Shelter in Place IID Employees to Return Home

/in , , /by /KYMA-TV (El Centro, Calif.)by Alexandra Rangel

Thirty-two Imperial Irrigation District (IID), employees committed to serving the community are finally going home after three weeks of fully committing to living at their job site to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

The IID’s shelter in place program housed 32 essential employees in individual trailers.

All this was done to make sure employees stay protected in order to continue to bring water and energy to the 400,000 people they serve in the Imperial and Coachella Valley.

Well-Known Salton Sea Origin Story Questioned by New Research

/in , , /by /Palm Springs Desert Sunby Mark Olalde

The origin of California’s largest lake is a well-known tale. In an attempt to turn the desert into lush farmland more than a century ago, humans tried — and temporarily but dramatically failed  — to exert control over nature.

“The Salton Sea in south California was created in 1905 when spring flooding on the Colorado River breached a canal,” NASA’s website spells out. For 18 months, the most important river in the West flowed along what appeared to be a novel course through the Salton Basin, which lies 227 feet below sea level.

Being born from an engineering miscalculation on the part of the California Development Company means the Salton Sea has been written off as an “accident” in histories inked on many pages, ranging from The Washington Post to the Daily Mail.

But that framing is too simplistic, new research suggests, arguing that the sea’s formation was inevitable, regardless of the famous canal breach in 1905.

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