In Crowley County, Colorado, sugar beets and alfalfa used to line the fields. It’s cantaloupes were famous.
But that all changed about three decades ago when most of the farmers sold their water rights to rapidly growing cities on the Front Range.
The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California approved a battery energy storage system at the Robert A. Skinner Water Treatment Plant.
The Oct. 13 MWD board vote amended MWD’s capital investment plan to include battery storage systems at three treatment plants and one pumping plant, authorized an agreement with Stantec Inc., for the design of the battery energy storage facilities and found the study portion of the project to be categorically exempt from California Environmental Quality Act review.
The pandemic has changed the way many students are attending school, but the health emergency did not stop more than 150 local kids from taking part in the annual Helix Water District art contest.
The water district honored 10 student artists for their winning “Water Is Life” posters. The district held a virtual awards ceremony during its Oct. 28 board meeting.
The Helix Water District honored local student artists within its service area for their winning “Water Is Life” posters at a virtual awards ceremony during the District’s board meeting on October 28.
Each year, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California holds a regional poster contest for students in kindergarten through sixth grade to increase student’s awareness about water.
Helix promotes the contest to all elementary schools within its service area. This year, 174 students from 14 schools submitted posters depicting how to use water wisely.
First Place – Gabriel Espino, Lemon Avenue Elementary, Grade 3.
Second Place – Marvin Sears III, La Mesa Dale Elementary, Grade 3.
Third Place – Alexander Mollner, St. John of the Cross, Grade 2.
Honorable Mention – Pashaun Tillman, La Mesa Dale Elementary, Grade 3.
Honorable Mention – Lily Griffin, Murdock Elementary, Grade 3.
First Place – Jose Sabedra, Bostonia Language Academy, Grade 4.
Second Place – Nurah Avellano, St. John of the Cross, Grade 6.
Third Place – Mina Saeed, Lexington Elementary, Grade 4.
Honorable Mention – Valeria Ramirez-Quiroz, St. John of the Cross, Grade 5.
Honorable Mention – Giselle Villegas Garcia, Lemon Grove Academy, Grade 5.
The winning posters will be sent to the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California to compete in the annual 2021 “Water Is Life” calendar competition against entries from other Southern California schools.
Fifth grader Valeria Ramirez-Quiroz of St. John of the Cross was a local 2019 winner as a fourth grader, and her poster was selected for the 2020 Metropolitan Water District “Water is Life”calendar.
Winning posters are also posted for display on the district’s website at www.hwd.com and Facebook page.
Helix Water District provides water treatment and distribution for 277,000 people in the cities of El Cajon, La Mesa and Lemon Grove, the community of Spring Valley and areas of Lakeside — east of downtown San Diego. Helix also provides treated water to neighboring Padre Dam, Otay and Lakeside water districts.
The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California adopted a program to provide incentives for replacing toilets at multi-family housing properties. MWD’s Oct. 13 board meeting included approving a $250 incentive to replace toilets with a flush volume of 3.5 gallons or greater and a $125 incentive to replace toilets with a flush volume of 1.6 gallons or greater.
For the West this summer, the news about water was grim. In some parts of California, it didn’t rain for over 100 days. In western Colorado, the ground was so dry that runoff at first evaporated into the air. And in New Mexico and Nevada, the rains never came.
Bill Hasencamp is the manager of California’s Metropolitan Water District, which provides treated water to 19 million people. What was most unfortunate, he said, was that, “the upper Colorado Basin had a 100% snowpack, yet runoff was only 54% of normal.” In 2018, a variation happened — light snow and little runoff, which doesn’t bode well for the future.
Analysis released today shows that proposals by the Fallbrook and Rainbow water districts to leave the San Diego County Water Authority and annex into the Eastern Municipal Water District in Riverside County would increase costs for water ratepayers in San Diego County, reduce the county’s voting power, and decrease water supply reliability for farms and residents.
Numerous financial, environmental and legal issues that affect property owners and water users across San Diego County are analyzed in the Water Authority’s formal response to the reorganization proposals filed today with the San Diego County Local Agency Formation Commission, known as LAFCO.
Life during the COVID-19 pandemic has been a time of uncertainty and anxiety, but also a time of compromise and collaboration. We have all been asked to make sacrifices both big and small for the greater good — face masks, changing business operations, remote work, outdoor dining and countless other accommodations.
Public agencies — especially those that deliver an essential commodity like water — should operate in the same collaborative spirit to protect ratepayers and offer relief during the continuing economic fallout.
The San Diego County Water Authority and its 24 member agencies have taken action to protect ratepayers by implementing strong cost-cutting strategies to limit rate increases without sacrificing a safe and reliable water supply or the ability to plan for the future.
With the recession and the COVID-19 pandemic causing economic havoc nationally and across Southern California, the San Diego County Water Authority has adopted several cost-cutting strategies to reduce rate increases and it’s asking the Los Angeles-based Metropolitan Water District of Southern California to do the same.
As my two-year term as the Water Authority Board chair winds down, it’s my pleasure to update you on two important efforts that are underway for the betterment of the San Diego region.
First of all, our Board voted unanimously last week to spend a few more months discussing and assessing a study of a new regional water conveyance system to deliver our high-priority Colorado River supplies from the Imperial Valley. The work we’ve done over the past year shows the project would produce billions of dollars in potential savings over several decades – and we plan to use the next few months to outreach to stakeholder communities about this study, address questions raised in recent weeks and seek Board direction in November.
Ultimately, the questions are bigger than a new aqueduct – they are about how we sustain our economy and quality of life at a reasonable cost. A new multi-benefits conveyance system is one potential solution – but if not that, then we must grapple with equal intensity over whether it makes sense to pay ever-increasing costs (over which we have no control) to the Los Angeles-based Metropolitan Water District of Southern California to deliver our water for generations, or whether a plan based mainly on local water generation is financially feasible.
The other big issue this month is related – my request that MWD adopt rate relief measures this fall that reduce our water costs. Put simply, despite the recession and the COVID-19 pandemic MWD has not enacted the same kind of rate relief as the Water Authority, which froze hiring, deferred non-essential projects and significantly reduced travel – among other steps. In the end, we limited rate increases to 4.8-4.9 % for 2021 – and more than 60% of that is directly attributable to MWD.
Now, we’re asking MWD to take a similar approach, recognizing that we’re all in this together. We aren’t prescribing the strategies for MWD. We’re just asking that the nation’s largest water agency help its customers, and we’re pledging that any rate relief MWD provides will be passed directly to our member agencies. You can view the letter I sent to MWD at www.sdcwa.org/support-rate-relief-mwd.
I invite you to help move this conversation forward by encouraging MWD to find meaningful cost savings this fall that are reflected in its budget. Please take a moment to do so at www.sdcwa.org/support-rate-relief-mwd by submitting a letter of support for rate relief.
