California is no stranger to droughts, and while much of California is straining to conserve water, San Diego is in no such predicament.
A recent analysis from the New York Times found that San Diego, over the course of nearly 30 years, has become adept at conserving water and at preparing for dry years.
Drinking water from this tap makes San Diego County Water Authority’s General Manager Sandy Kerl smile — and for good reason. Back in the drought of the ’90s, 95% of San Diego’s water came from one source, and they faced 30% cuts for 13 months.
Small amounts of oil and tar washed ashore as far south as San Diego County on Thursday as cleanup and recovery efforts accelerated following the oil spill along the Orange County coast.
Officials said they’ve made progress in the cleanup and hope to advance even further over the weekend. But a storm that meteorologists say could bring 20-mph winds to the region is moving in, raising concerns that more oil could reach the shores. So far, much of the crude has remained offshore, but striations have been seen in Huntington Beach and Laguna Beach.
San Diego’s sewer rates haven’t gone up in ten years. Now, the city is playing catch up with a four-year string of rate hikes they say is needed to maintain the aging system, and fund the Pure Water project.
The city says the increase was long overdue. But so are the unpaid water bills of thousands of lower income San Diegans. California’s pandemic water shutoff moratorium is set to end September 30.
Months after Governor Gavin Newsom asked Californians to voluntarily cut back on their water use during this severe drought, much of the state is missing the mark.
While the initial data is limited, the Southern California region has so far managed to cut its water consumption by just a tenth of a percent.
Despite an appeal by Gov. Gavin Newsom for all Californians to voluntarily cut water use by 15%, Southern California has lagged in conservation efforts and even increased water consumption slightly in Los Angeles and San Diego, according to newly released data.
More than two months after Newsom stood by a depleted reservoir in San Luis Obispo County to make his plea, figures released Tuesday by the State Water Resources Control Board show that conservation efforts have varied widely from north to south.
In the first test of their willingness to cut back on water use during the drought, Californians reduced residential consumption by just 1.8% in July compared to a year earlier — well short of what Gov. Gavin Newsom has been seeking.
The statistics released Tuesday by the State Water Resources Control Board suggest Californians haven’t been enthusiastically embracing Newsom’s appeal for 15% reductions, at least in the early going.
Sewer rates for San Diegans in single-family homes would increase nearly 17 percent next year and a total of 31 percent over the next four years under a rate hike proposal the City Council is scheduled to consider Tuesday.
The proposal also would reduce sewer rates for most businesses, condos and apartments based on two comprehensive studies showing those customers have been paying too much, while single-family homes haven’t been paying enough.
Even as she was going blind, my mom, ever the poet, delighted in sitting out among the palms and birds, and enjoying and visualizing the scene, as I irrigated my date gardens in the Coachella Valley.
In her 1997 poem, “Colorado Water,” she wrote:
The palm said, “My clover is cool around my bole, over my hidden roots.
My fronds clatter, crash
like waves in the far off sea.”
