As California grapples with worsening cycles of drought, a proposal to create a new water district in Butte County has sparked fears of a profit-driven water grab by large-scale farmers and outside interests.
For local breweries in San Diego, it’s becoming increasingly complex to brew beer due to a recent surge in water rates.
Arizona, stressed by years of drought, has declared its housebuilding boom will have to be curbed due to a lack of water but one of its fastest-growing cities is refusing to give up its relentless march into the desert – even if it requires constructing a pipeline that would bring water across the border from Mexico.
On Sept. 17, the Sweetwater Authority Governing Board accepted the 2023 rate study, which proposes a water rate structure for the following three years, determining the cost of providing water service and revenue required to maintain current water service levels.
One thing that’s not in dispute is that the City of Monterey needs water. What is in question is where that water comes from. On Aug. 1, the Monterey City Council discussed the possibility of teaming up with the Marina Coast Water District for an agreement that would potentially deliver whatever water the city needs to make proposed housing developments a reality (like on Garden Road, for example, wherein office buildings near the airport would be converted to apartments).
This month the Santa Fe Irrigation District is preparing to increase water rate charges for the next three years. The rate structure approved by the board in late 2022 was for tiered rates with a meter overlay for residential properties, an option they believe is unique to accommodate the variations in the district from small Solana Beach city lots to larger properties in Rancho Santa Fe.
Camarillo’s North Pleasant Valley Groundwater Desalter began producing drinking water earlier this month, diminishing the city’s reliance on imported water.
The reverse-osmosis desalter, located at 2727 Somis Road, converts unusable brackish groundwater into 1 million gallons of high-quality potable water per day, city staff said in a news release. The plant will be producing about 4 million gallons per day when it is operating at full capacity in two months.
San Diego water managers exude an understated confidence when they talk about the regional drought that is drying up California and the Colorado River Basin.
(Editor’s Note: Under the conserved water transfer agreement with the Imperial Irrigation District (IID), the San Diego County Water Authority funds conservation in the Imperial Valley that generates highly reliable and cost-effective conserved water for the San Diego region. This conserved water supply is largely insulated because of IID’s high priority rights, which IID retains.)
The city is taking off its books an unused potable water tank and turning it over to recycled water experts to lessen municipal dependency on imported water.
The San Dieguito and Olivenhain Municipal water districts entered into an agreement on June 15 allowing the San Elijo Joint Powers Authority license and right of entry to the J.C Wanket Reservoir, a 3-million-gallon concrete water tank constructed in 1975.
If there is any source of water that ought to be optimized, it is the wastewater produced by California’s urban centers. Perennially issuing from sewage treatment plants throughout the state, every year this torrent of mostly treated effluent is equivalent in volume to the San Joaquin River in a wet year.
The California Department of Water Resources estimates statewide urban water consumption at approximately seven million acre feet per year. Just over three million of that total is estimated to be so-called “interior” water use, which means this water is flushed or drained through sewer systems into a wastewater treatment plant.
The Water News Network is San Diego County’s source for water news and information.
