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Surf, Jousting And Rock ‘N’ Roll: Switchfoot’s Bro-Am Festival Celebrates 15 Years

/in , , /by /San Diego Union-Tribuneby Phil Diehl

Success has hardly gone to the heads of the San Diego rock band Switchfoot, as they showed Saturday at their 15th annual Bro-Am surf and music festival at Moonlight Beach in Encinitas. The musicians mingled with youngsters flown in from across the country by the nonprofit Challenged Athletes Foundation, and with guests and lifelong friends, including professional surfer Rob Machado, a co-sponsor of the event. “It’s the best day of the year,” said Chad Butler, the band’s drummer. “We grew up here. Music and surfing kept us out of trouble. We wanted to give something back to the community that we love.”

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Sweetwater Authority Approves $46 Million Budget For Next Fiscal Year

/in , /by /San Diego Union-Tribuneby David Hernandez

The Sweetwater Authority anticipates that it will buy less imported water and supply customers with more from its own water supply in the upcoming fiscal year than in 2018-19, thanks primarily to above-average rainfall. The South Bay water agency estimates that the amount it will spend to purchase water will drop from $15.2 million in 2018-19 to $10 million in the fiscal year that begins in July. The projected decrease is reflected in the $46 million operating budget adopted by the governing board last week. Among notable increases in expenses in the 2019-20 spending plan, the Sweetwater Authority expects an 11 percent increase in employer pension contributions and an 8 percent increase in health insurance costs.

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San Diego Can Expect ‘June Gloom’ Into Next Weekend

/in , , /by /San Diego Union-Tribuneby Gary Robbins

Those few days of warmth and sunshine San Diego experienced about a week ago suggested that the ‘June gloom’ was coming to an end. But it isn’t. The National Weather Service says the marine layer will thicken and creep inland this week, lasting into the weekend. That will keep daytime high temperatures at or below average for mid-June. The highs will range from 69-72. Full or partial clearing is possible in the late morning or early afternoon at some beaches. But the weather will otherwise be coolish and, in the early morning, drizzly. Forecasters say that inland areas will clear more quickly. Ramona is expected to hit 80 on Wednesday and Thursday.

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California Operator Of Electricity Grid Fends Off Millions Of Cyberattacks Each Month

/in , , /by /San Diego Union-Tribuneby Rob Nikolewski

The California Independent System Operator, which oversees about 80 percent of the state’s electricity consumers and 26,000 miles of transmission infrastructure, is a busy place. It’s also a target. “We are looking at several millions of undesired communications trying to connect with us per month,” said Hubert Hafner, who as manager of Information Security Technology makes it his job to ensure California’s grid remains secure from cyberattacks. “That’s our No. 1 risk,” Hafner said recently while attending an energy conference hosted by the Institute of the Americas at UC San Diego. “That’s why it’s getting a lot of priority and, accordingly, a lot of resources.”

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Salt Creek Golf Course Is Now Available To Developers

/in , , /by /San Diego Union-Tribuneby Gustavo Solis

The Otay Water District plans to offer up the old Salt Creek Golf Course to developers. In May, the district prepared a list of about 40 regional developers it plans to notify about the availability of the 164-acre plot of land off Hunte Parkway just east of State Route 125. The decision to sell to developers comes more than a year since the unprofitable golf course shut down in March 2018, leaving Chula Vista’s golfers with one less place to play. At the time of Salt Creek’s closure, operators owed the Otay Water District more than $21,000 – this was after the district had already reduced their annual rent by roughly $118,000, records show.

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San Diego County Water Authority Marks 75 Years Of Service That Shaped The Region

/in , , /by /San Diego Union-Tribune Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

No roadside marker notes its historic significance, but a rural hilltop just off state Route 76 near Fallbrook is where the story of modern San Diego County begins. A few feet underground is a gravity-flow pipeline delivering water from the Colorado River through Lake Skinner in Riverside County, then to San Vicente Reservoir near Lakeside. South of the hilltop connection is where the San Diego County Water Authority takes ownership of the region’s historic Pipeline 1, along with four other major concrete and steel veins that send water coursing to cities and water agencies throughout the San Diego region.

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Column: Officials Respond To Concerns About Grebe Nests

/in , , /by /San Diego Union-Tribuneby Ernie Cowan Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

Concerns by conservation and wildlife groups about the destruction of grebe nests at Lake Hodges because of fluctuating water levels has caught the attention of water managers and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. The issue was raised last week in a letter to the city of San Diego, owner of the water storage reservoir just south of Escondido. Recent changes in water levels at the reservoir have resulted in as many as 300 grebe eggs being destroyed because adult birds could not reach the nests after water levels suddenly dropped. Brian Caldwell lives adjacent to Lake Hodges and operates Lake Hodges Photo Tours. He was one of the first to sound the alarm about nests being destroyed.

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Trump EPA Releases Blueprint For Stemming Tijuana River Pollution That Routinely Fouls San Diego Beaches

/in , , /by /San Diego Union-Tribuneby Joshua Emerson Smith

Shorelines in South Bay San Diego will never be fully immune from the sewage and chemical pollution that flows north from Mexico over the border through canyons and the Tijuana River. However, beach closures triggered by contaminated stormwater and Tijuana’s leaky sewer system can be dramatically reduced — from more than a hundred days a year to perhaps a just few dozen. That was the message last week from President Trump’s U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which released the most comprehensive blueprint to date for addressing water pollution that fouls shorelines in Imperial Beach more than a third of the year on average.

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Two North County Districts Contemplating Exit From The San Diego County Water Authority

/in , , /by /San Diego Union-Tribuneby J. Harry Jones Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

Two water districts in northern San Diego County are exploring the possibility of leaving the San Diego County Water Authority and buying their water instead from an agency in southern Riverside County, a move one district says could save it as much as $6 million annually. It is the first time in the Water Authority’s 75-year history that such a move has been considered by any of its 24 member agencies, officials say, and it likely would be challenged. Both the Rainbow Municipal Water District and the Fallbrook Public Utility Department have been discussing the move for several months. A lawyer for the Water Authority read a public statement at the authority’s most recent board meeting on May 23, making it public knowledge.

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OPINION: Hydropower Is A Clean Energy Source. Why Don’t California Lawmakers Grasp This?

/in , , /by /San Diego Union-Tribune

The reality of climate change is properly framed in potentially apocalyptic terms. Without cleaner energy, the atmosphere will keep heating, and extreme weather will be more common, disruptive and deadly. Hence the need for an “all of the above” clean-energy strategy. Yet too many environmentalists oppose hydropower and nuclear power. These energy sources have their downsides — the impact on aquatic life and nuclear waste storage among them — but if climate change is an existential threat, opposing their use doesn’t make any sense.

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