San Diego County’s Local Agency Formation Commission is in the process of developing a municipal service review for the San Diego County Water Authority, and a presentation at the Feb. 5 LAFCO meeting noted that the MSR would focus on the SDCWA voting and rate structures and alignment between CWA projects and actual needs.
Additional swift-water rescue teams and assistance from the U.S. National Guard will be on tap when the next big storm arrives Thursday, officials said Tuesday, even as many worked to recover from the flash flood that upended so many lives just eight days ago.
A $5 million cleanup project in the Tijuana River Valley will begin in early 2024, with a completion date before the end of March, officials said on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, the San Diego County Board of Supervisors voted 4-0 in favor of dredging drainage channels and building a basin for sediment and trash control in the Smuggler’s Gulch and Pilot channels.
San Diego County will spend $5 million to expand removal of sewage and trash from Mexico that accumulates in the Tijuana River Valley.
On Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a plan that involves building a sediment- and trash-control basin and dredging the drainage channels, known as Smuggler’s Gulch and Pilot Channel, that often build up with debris after storms.
The San Diego County Board of Supervisors voted 3-0 Wednesday to align county regulations with a court ruling allowing users in the Borrego Springs Subbasin to pump groundwater.
In 2021, a San Diego Superior Court judge ruled that users in the Borrego Springs Subbasin have the right to pump groundwater. In connection with that ruling, a required 70% reduction in groundwater use to comply with the state Sustainable Groundwater Management Act must be achieved by 2040.
The San Diego county Board of Supervisors voted 3-1 Tuesday to support state legislation that would require a vote by all customers served by water districts within the County Water Authority before individual districts can leave the authority.
Proposed by Supervisor Joel Anderson in a board letter, the policy follows a July 10 decision from the San Diego Local Agency Formation Commission to allow the Rainbow Municipal Water District and Fallbrook Public Utility District to leave the water authority.
Board of Supervisors Chair Nora Vargas and Vice Chair Terra Lawson-Remer are asking the board to declare a local state of emergency over cross-border pollution that has fouled San Diego beaches, in hopes of to expediting cleanup and prompting a federal emergency declaration.
The San Diego County Board of Supervisors Wednesday unanimously approved land purchases to increase two nature preserves.
The board approved spending $2.8 million to acquire 425 acres for the Mount Olympus County Preserve in Pala-Pauma and Rainbow and $5.3 million for 190 acres to increase Sweetwater Regional Park in Spring Valley.
The addition will expand the Mount Olympus County Preserve to over 1,200 acres and provide large shrubland habitat for deer, mountain lion and other sensitive species, according to Shauni Lyles, a San Diego County communications specialist.
The San Diego County Board of Supervisors heard from the public Wednesday on a proposed sewer system rate increase for eight unincorporated communities, and ultimately delayed a planned vote in light of opposition.
The ordinance was originally set for approval Wednesday but was continued until early May after the county received at last 117 letters, an official said.
The Board of Supervisors directed the chief administrative officer Wednesday to update the county’s water and drought-management strategies, including sustainability efforts, and deliver a final report within the next year.
The overhaul, proposed by board Vice Chairwoman Nora Vargas, will incorporate the entire region, including local municipalities, Imperial County and bi-national cities.
The Water News Network is San Diego County’s source for water news and information.
