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San Diego Water Rates Going Up 6.3 Percent This Year

/in , /by /KPBSby Maya Trabulsi

Water customers in the City of San Diego will be seeing another increase on future bills, but not quite as high as it could have been. The increase will be a combination of the city rate increase that took effect Sunday, September 1st, and another increase from San Diego County.

In a letter reminding customers of the rate change, the City of San Diego said the 4.82% increase will pay for, among other things, infrastructure investments, water quality testing, and costs that are passed down from other agencies.

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Plan To Stabilize Del Mar Coastal Bluffs Moves Forward

/in , /by /KPBSby John Carroll

Work to stabilize the coastal bluffs through Del Mar is moving forward, following a vote Monday by the Del Mar City Council. Council members approved an encroachment permit Monday night, allowing SANDAG to work on a 1.6 mile stretch of coastline. This is Phase 4 of SANDAG’s bluff stabilization project, which began 18-years ago. Work has already been completed along the bluffs at the end of 11th Street. The circles seen in the dirt to the west of the train tracks are actually the tops of 65-foot tall pilings that stabilize the bluffs.

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Coastal Cities Wrestling With ‘Managed Retreat’ Ramifications Of Rising Sea Levels

/in , /by /KPBSby Alison St John

The California Coastal Commission has encouraged cities to include a strategy called “managed retreat” in plans to prepare for sea level rise. But the commission may be retreating from that position.

Del Mar is a prime example of a city where an entire neighborhood is threatened by rising seas. Mayor Dave Druker said that houses along the Del Mar beach are actually higher than the houses in the narrow lanes behind them.

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It’s Not Your Imagination — Humidity Is Getting Worse In San Diego

/in , , /by /KPBSby John Carroll

It’s part of the reason so many of us love living here so much, the beautiful sunny weather. But inject humidity into the picture and the sunny becomes sticky. That’s when what meteorologists call the “heat index” comes into play. Some people call it the “real feel” temperature.

But are we really feeling more humid weather in San Diego over the last several years?

Meteorologists at the local National Weather Service office in Rancho Bernardo said yes. “In recent years, it has definitely been more humid than normal,” said meteorologist Brandt Maxwell.

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Report: SD County Faces Dramatic Spike In Heat Without Climate-Change Action

/in , , /by /KPBS

Absent significant global action to address climate change, San Diego County — and other regions across the country — will see dramatic spikes in annual extreme-heat days by the end of the century, according to a report released Tuesday by a scientific advocacy group.

The report by the Union of Concerned Scientists, a nonprofit group that has long pushed for worldwide efforts to combat climate change, offers detailed predictions of anticipated temperature increases in areas across the United States under various scenarios, including varying degrees of political action by international leaders

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Seabin Makes Difference In Cleaning Water In San Diego Marina

/in , /by /KPBS (San Diego)by John Carroll

Pollution in the oceans of the world is a major problem. It’s also a problem close to shore. But a relatively small invention called the Seabin is making a big difference in cleaning San Diego’s coastal waters. In San Diego on Friday, Seabin CEO and co-founder Pete Ceglinski showed KPBS how the device works at Cabrillo Isle Marina on Harbor Island. A container with a fiber lining catches debris and oil, which is sucked into the unit, similar to how a pool filter works. It filters the water and flushes clean water out the bottom. It’s emptied once or twice a day.

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How Ice A Half A World Away Affects Southern California Sea Levels

/in , , /by /KPBS (San Diego)by Erik Anderson

San Diego researchers are among many scientists around the world trying to understand how a warming climate is affecting the world’s major ice sheets. Two Scripps Institution of Oceanography researchers are studying the changes in different parts of the world about the change that could affect local oceans. As part of our reporting from the Climate Change Desk, KPBS Environment Reporter Erik Anderson discussed the issue with glaciologist Helen Fricker and physical oceanographer Fiamma Straneo.

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Fixes Could Finally Be Coming For Mexico’s Cross-Border Sewage Spills

/in , , /by /KPBSby Erik Anderson

Local officials plan to huddle over the next few weeks to pick a strategy to control the region’s cross-border pollution problem. San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer was the first local politician to say he is ready to take action to stop the cross-border pollution flows.He told a gathering of stakeholders who met in Coronado that he wants local officials to commit to a solution and to get underway. Faulconer asked that the solution be comprehensive and come with a price tag.

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Salton Sea Still In Need Of Restoration Funding

/in , , /by /KPBSby Erik Anderson

A sweeping deal to plan for drought in the Colorado River Basin may yet include the river’s largest water user. The Imperial Irrigation District was frozen out of the multi-state deal when Los Angeles water managers offered to provide water cutbacks if Lake Mead continues to lose water. However, the Southern California water district still hopes to join the federal drought contingency plan.

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San Diego Winter Is Wetter Than Most

/in , , /by /KPBSby Erik Anderson

Southern California’s rainy season comes to a close in about two weeks, and the winter is already among some of the region’s wettest. This past winter was the second in three years to produce above average rainfall in San Diego. The KPBS Water Gauge tracks rainfall and snowpack in California and both totals are running well above average. National Weather service forecaster Alex Tardy said this past winter was a winter of stormy weather.

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