Riverside County and Salton Sea officials held a public event Oct. 19 in North Shore to mark reaching a significant milestone in the development of the future North Lake Pilot Demonstration Project.
The event was held at the North Shore Beach & Yacht Club Community Center, 99-155 Sea View Drive. The yacht club overlooks the project’s future site along Riverside County’s northern shore of the Salton Sea.
Engineers are busy studying the soil near the Salton Sea.
This is where they’re planning on transforming more than 150 acres into a modern nature habitat.
The Eastern Municipal Water District is considering rate hikes totaling in excess of 13% over the next two years to contend with cost pressures, and the Perris-based agency’s Board of Directors is asking ratepayers to submit their opinions on the proposed increases.
The Board of Supervisors Tuesday officially added Riverside County to a statewide coalition of interests promulgating steps by the state to expand water infrastructure and take other actions to prevent water shortages during cyclical droughts, including the current one. “Different (local) water companies are getting together on the same page,” board Chairman Jeff Hewitt said. “It gives me hope they’ll find solutions sooner than later.”
Riverside County water suppliers told the Board of Supervisors Tuesday that conservation efforts are aiding the region in weathering the current severe drought, but their future ability to meet demand will depend on new infrastructure and changes in consumption habits.
“As the watersheds dry up in the Southwest, we need to be concerned about some things,” Beaumont-Cherry Valley Water District Manager Dan Jaggers told the board during a presentation on the drought emergency. “As the drought continues, we will begin to have further restrictions. People need to know how serious this is.”
The U.S. national drought early-warning information system, called NIDIS, gave a rundown Thursday on when much of the Southwest will experience conditions that heighten the potential for wildfire.
Drought is one of the main drivers because less water means drier soils, drier plants and drier air, all conditions that fuel wildfire.
According to NIDIS projections, above-average wildfire potential creeps into the San Diego region (mostly along mountain ridges or high altitudes where winds are strong and fuel is plentiful) come September.
State Assemblymember Eduardo Garcia, D-Coachella, Riverside County Supervisor V. Manuel Perez and other local leaders revealed a plan Saturday for a recreation and restoration project at the Salton Sea using $19.25 million in state funds.
The Salton Sea North Lake Pilot Demonstration Project is slated to be an approximately 156-acre marina that will be located near the current North Shore Beach and Yacht Club Community Center in the community of North Shore.
“The North Lake Pilot Demonstration Project is an important habitat and dust suppression project and a major investment in state funding to revitalize the northern end of the Salton Sea as well as the community of North Shore,” Perez said in a statement.
The Santa Margarita River flows through town but Fallbrook had to fight for 70 years to finally use it.
The narrow river winds its way from Riverside County, through Fallbrook, and eventually onto Camp Pendleton in northern San Diego County where it empties into the Pacific Ocean. For the longest time, the military base did not want to share the river’s water with Fallbrook. The federal government filed a lawsuit against Fallbrook in 1951. Since then, Fallbrook Public Utility District General Manager Jack Bebee said they’ve battled, negotiated, and pleaded with all levels of government.
As the new president of the Salton Sea Authority board of directors, Riverside County Supervisor V. Manuel Perez says he will guide “continued efforts to advance habitat and dust suppression projects” at the Sea, and he has laid out his priorities.
At the June meeting of the Salton Sea Authority board of directors, Perez was elected by a unanimous vote to a one-year term as board president beginning July 1.
Mechanical engineer Brent Yamasaki set out amid the recent blistering heat wave to take stock of the giant dams, pumps and pipes that support Diamond Valley Lake in Riverside County, the largest storehouse of water in Southern California.
The reservoir, which he helped build 25 years ago, is 4½ miles long and 2 miles wide and holds back nearly 800,000 acre-feet of water — so much that it would take 20,000 years to fill it with a garden hose.
The Water News Network is San Diego County’s source for water news and information.
