The Ramona Municipal Water District is looking forward to continuing to increase customer service while seeking options to help control costs as they move into the new year, said general manager Erica Wolski.
The California Department of Water Resources (CDWR) issued its first snowpack report of 2024. It isn’t great. The snow in the Sierra Nevada is roughly 25% of the state’s average for this time of year.
The bowl-shaped common space at the Mall III Homeowners Association property in Lake San Marcos was once a pricey, turf-heavy problem for its HOA board. After a water-smart landscape upgrade, it’s now a point of pride that’s easier on the budget.
Weeks after North County residents voted to secede from the San Diego County Water Authority by a margin of 19 to 1 early last month, county water officials directed their lawyers to resolve a lawsuit challenging the divorce.
The San Diego County Water Authority has agreed to drop its lawsuit over the proposed departure of two North County water agencies, it was announced Thursday.
The San Diego County Water Authority has agreed to a settlement with the Rainbow Municipal Water District (RMWD) and Fallbrook Public Utility District (FPUD), allowing both to detach from the Water Authority while dropping all litigation.
In exchange, the two districts agreed to an immediate $25 million payment plus related costs and fees. The settlement minimizes rate impacts on San Diego County’s 3.3 million residents while avoiding expensive litigation. It also provides institutional certainty moving forward.
“While the majority of SDCWA’s remaining 22-district membership remains opposed to detachment, they agree that this settlement makes the best of a bad situation,” said Mel Katz, chairman of the Water Authority Board. “While we continue to believe the detachment award should have been higher, RMWD and FPUD are required to pay all costs above the amount ordered by the Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO) in addition to its entire exit fee upfront, meaning there will be no immediate rate impacts for ratepayers.”
As part of the settlement agreement, both RMWD and FPUD have agreed to pay all costs related to the decommissioning of Water Authority facilities not being used post-detachment. The two agencies have agreed to indemnify and hold harmless the Water Authority against any future claims related to detachment. Both will complete all administrative, technical, and infrastructure-related tasks before the facilities can be transferred.
These settlement conditions exceed the conditions prescribed by LAFCO as part of its conditions for detachment.
In response to LAFCO’s July decision to approve RMWD and FPUD’s request for detachment, Assemblymember Tasha Boerner introduced and passed Assembly Bill 399: The Water Ratepayer Protection Act. Mayor Todd Gloria and the City of San Diego supported AB 399.
This legislation was signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom this fall and will go into effect in January 2024. It will require a countywide election to be held for a detachment of a local district moving forward. Its provisions protect the long-term integrity of the Water Authority and the San Diego region’s ratepayers.
The Water Conservation Garden will run out of money as early as mid-December, the nonprofit organization Friends of The Water Conservation Garden stated at an October 24 meeting of the Water Conservation Garden Joint Powers Authority, the consortium of public utility and governmental entities that oversees the Friends.
Some San Diego water leaders aren’t ready to settle with two defecting water districts leaving the county for Riverside. Five of the 36 board directors of the San Diego County Water Authority called for a special meeting to cancel peace talks with two North County communities divorcing the district to search for cheaper water elsewhere.
In a historic effort to protect the Colorado River from extended drought, the San Diego County Water Authority and five other major California water districts have signed the first of a series of agreements to save 1.6 million acre-feet of water.
California water districts and Bureau of Reclamation officials today commemorated a series of 21 water conservation agreements that will save 1.6 million acre feet of Colorado River water through 2026.
