Plans Proceed for Solar Farm at Carlsbad City Reservoir
Carlsbad is working with consultants and industry experts to build a solar energy farm on 30 to 40 acres the city owns at the Maerkle Reservoir.
Carlsbad is working with consultants and industry experts to build a solar energy farm on 30 to 40 acres the city owns at the Maerkle Reservoir.
Oh, the things you do when you first buy a house that make you wish you’d known better. For Melanie and Rick Cullen, it was planting three liquidambar trees in their front yard around the time they moved into their Encinitas home back in 1986.
The San Diego County Water Authority and San Diego County Office of Education (SDCOE) have embarked on a pioneering education partnership to inspire students regionwide to pursue careers in the water and wastewater industry. This new program is the latest initiative in a long history of regional education outreach reaching hundreds of thousands of students in the last two decades.
At the Innovation Center in Linda Vista, SDCOE hosts groups of students, many of whom come from underserved and underrepresented communities, for weeklong innovation programs. These programs are designed to help students identify their individual strengths through an assessment, which highlights several strength areas: Realistic (R), Investigative (I), Artistic (A), Social (S), Enterprising (E), and Conventional (C).
“At the Linda Vista Innovation Center, we aim to inspire kids to find their strengths, interests, and values and match those with San Diego Workforce Partnership priority sector careers,” said Dr. Matthew Tessier, Assistant Superintendent of Innovation at the San Diego County Office of Education. “Partnerships with organizations like the San Diego County Water Authority are crucial to our mission, and we look forward to working together to build a brighter future for all.”
These programs give students a glimpse into the opportunities available in various industries, many of which are on the San Diego Workforce Partnership’s priority list. The industries on the list are critical to the region’s economy and will need to hire substantial numbers of capable new employees in the foreseeable future.
The Innovation Center also supports SDCOE’s goals to significantly reduce the number of students living in poverty and reduce overall unemployment in the region over the next decade. By matching students with potential career paths and inspiring them to lean into their strengths early on, thousands of students from elementary to high school leave the program knowing about opportunities that they may not have known about otherwise.
Organizations like the Water Authority and its member agencies benefit from generations of students becoming interested in water-related careers, which are essential to the region’s economy and quality of life.
Hundreds of miles away and nearly 7,000 feet up in the peaks of the Sierra Nevada, the most recent snow survey delivers good news: The state’s snowpack is at 110% of normal, a good sign for the water supply.
The California Department of Water Resources performed its fourth snowpack survey of the season on Tuesday, April 2, confirming that the early winter’s “snow drought” gave way to a slightly above-normal snowpack following a series of storms.
DWR’s early April snow survey marks what is considered the peak snowpack for the year in the Sierra Nevada. The Colorado River Basin – San Diego County’s main source of water – also reports more snow than average for this time of year.
DWR’s survey recorded 64 inches of snow depth and a snow water equivalent of 27.5 inches, which is 113 percent of the average. The snow water equivalent measures the amount of water contained in the snowpack and is a key component of DWR’s water supply forecast.
Two consecutive wet winters, combined with regional investments and conservation by residents and businesses, delivered enough water to meet the San Diego region’s needs for the rest of 2024.
Across California, reservoirs are nearly full as we approach the start of summer—the heaviest water-use months. Plentiful water is a rare occurrence in the arid Southwest. From 2020 to 2022, the state suffered severe drought conditions that forced water-use reductions for millions of California residents.
For the past decade, San Diego County has been insulated from drought-induced cutbacks due to the long-term investments in secure water supplies, a strategy that emerged in the early 1990s following an economically devastating drought. Since 1990, the region has dramatically cut water demands, reducing per capita water use by more than 50 percent. Water conservation has become a “way of life” for the region’s residents and businesses.
The Water Authority is currently working to sell or transfer some of its surplus water supply to areas with greater needs. For instance, an innovative water transfer deal could eventually deliver drought-resilient water supplies to South Orange County through the Moulton Niguel Water District and help combat increasing water rates for San Diegans.
A deal completed in late 2023 saved the San Diego region about $20 million. These water transfers help maintain the viability of the Colorado River as the most critical water resource for the Southwest.
“Wet years are the right time to prepare for the inevitable dry years,” said Water Authority General Manager Dan Denham. “That’s why we’re working every day to explore creative deals that help us reduce water rate pressures for San Diegans, enhance our long-term water security, and help our neighbors meet their needs for drought-resilient water supplies.”
(Editor’s Note: Information in this story was provided by the California Department of Water Resources).
After two years of above-average rainfall, the reservoirs in San Diego are at near capacity. San Vicente’s reservoir waterfalls are spilling in to help raise the water level, but what does that mean as we head into the Summer months?
South Orange County is heavily reliant on imported water, with the price of that water continuing to rise. Without readily available water to help the area through emergency situations, water districts serving South Orange County residents such as South Coast Water District and Moulton Niguel Water District are looking to diversify their water supplies with ocean water desalination and direct potable reuse.
A Lake San Marcos homeowners association successfully upgraded its community landscape to achieve water savings and cost savings with assistance from a joint program offered through a partnership between the San Diego County Water Authority and the County of San Diego.
The Landscape Optimization Service (LOS) offered through the Waterscape Rebate Program is a technical assistance program for large-scale landscaping projects in the unincorporated areas of San Diego County. The program helps applicants with large landscapes, such as HOAs, parks, and commercial properties, to navigate the requirements, overcome any barriers, and maximize their rebate eligibility.
Members of the Fairways Homeowners Association (HOA) in Lake San Marcos within the Vallecitos Water District recently took advantage of this program to facilitate a water-saving landscape makeover project. Upgrades replaced large grass areas with attractive low-water-use plants inside the property. Drip irrigation was upgraded, and swales act as a water retention feature.
Fairways HOA president Terry Brown said her community was introduced to the program about 18 months ago.
“We removed 23,000 square feet, and then we got three dollars for each square foot that we removed, plus we got 40 cents for the drip irrigation system. We’re going to receive one dollar per square foot for at least 10,000 square feet of California native plants. So, we did all of that. And we’re pleased with everything that has happened,” said Brown.
While rebates defrayed the initial costs, the real savings will be realized in the years ahead on one of the HOA’s major expenses. “Within ten years, we’ll save $40,000 on water,” said Brown.
Maggie Knol, chairperson of the Landscape Committee, is also a Master Gardener. She understood the need to balance the needs of everyone in the community while planning their landscape makeover.
“We saw certain areas that weren’t really being used where we could definitely have some waterscape landscaping,” said Knol. Now, irrigation water is better managed and used only where needed.
“We have no water in the gutters. That makes us feel better about what we’re doing for our environment,” said Knol. “I would encourage any subdivision or any area to go ahead with it. It’s a wonderful program.
Makeovers don’t require eliminating all grass. Instead, grass is retained where it is most useful and practical. For the Fairways HOA board members, this meant accommodating the many residents who like to walk their dogs in the neighborhood and wanted to retain some grassy spaces for them to enjoy with their pets.
“We have tried to be sensitive to the dog owners in the neighborhood because we have a lot of dogs,” said Knol. “When we mapped this out, we left certain areas that could be definitely used as little rest spots for the dogs and the owners as they walk around. They all realize that the water crisis is going to continue and not get better.”
“This project is an ideal example of balancing community needs to create a thoughtful landscape design that saves water but allows room for retaining grass areas when there’s a practical purpose for them,” said Vallecitos Water District Conservation Supervisor Chris Robbins.
As part of the program, LOS staff analyzes estimated water and cost savings, which helps decision-makers justify the investment with an understanding of how quickly the project will pay for itself. The program also offers discounted designs to participants.
The enhanced incentives include rebates for turf replacement, smart controller stations, rain barrels, and cisterns. In addition to offering technical assistance to upgrade larger landscapes on multifamily and commercial properties, a cost-share is available for agricultural growers to make water-saving upgrades.
More information on the Landscape Optimization Service can be found here, or contact your member water agency for details. The program is actively recruiting new participants.
It takes a lot of pipelines to get water to all of San Diego County’s nearly three-and-a-half-million people. This story is about large-diameter pipelines. Three hundred eight miles of those big pipes run all through the county, delivering water to the San Diego County Water Authority and its 23 member agencies.
Many Californians could soon be required to cut back on their water use, but some question if it will go far enough. In a marathon eight-hour workshop Wednesday, the state’s Water Resources Control Board gave the public a chance to weigh in on its new strategy to increase water supplies statewide to protect against future drought conditions.