A Pacific storm that is tapping into moisture from the sub-tropics dropped substantial amounts of rain across San Diego County before dawn on Tuesday, and more showers are expected as the system shuffles off to the east, according to the National Weather Service.
Worried that an earthquake could collapse a big dam south of San Francisco, officials have ordered its reservoir to be completely drained by October to reduce the risk of floodwaters spilling into Silicon Valley.
The 240-foot (73-meter) high earthen Anderson Dam, built in 1950 between San Jose and the community of Morgan Hill, poses too great a risk of collapse and must be fully drained by Oct. 1, according to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which regulates dams, the Mercury News reported.
School board members of the San Diego Unified School District will consider a proposal Tuesday to install filtered water outlets in schools and update standards for lead in drinking water.
The district staff’s recommendation is for San Diego Unified to remove existing drinking fountains and install approximately 2,000 drinking hydration stations district-wide, according to agenda documents.
The proposal also includes changing the district’s drinking water policy so that all drinking outlets “reduce lead in water content to below 1 ppb,” or parts per billion.
San Diego approved a $15 million contract Monday for upgrades and renovations to the city’s three municipal golf courses, including preparations at Torrey Pines to host next year’s U.S. Open.
The City Council unanimously approved the joint contract with four separate companies that will each perform parts of the work. Individual projects are expected to cost between $250,000 and $2.5 million each.
The city’s municipal courses include the north and south courses at Torrey Pines, 18-hole and nine-hole courses at Balboa Municipal, and the lighted Mission Bay executive golf course.
The Otay Water District Board of Directors last week unanimously appointed Assistant Chief of Water Operations Jose Martinez as the organization’s next general manager.
Martinez, 40, will succeed Mark Watton, who represented the water interests of Otay, the county and the state for more than 30 years.
The board said it will negotiate contract terms and vote on Martinez’s salary at its March 11 board meeting. His appointment is effective March 1.
Plans to replace the Lake Wohlford dam are now on hold as Escondido investigates other, less expensive options because the projected cost of the project has escalated to more than $50 million.
It was nearly 13 years ago when state inspectors determined that the top quarter of the dam might liquefy in the event of a major earthquake and potentially flood eastern Escondido.
Right away, Escondido utility workers lowered the water level of the lake so that only the bottom three-quarters of the dam would be needed to hold back water. The amount of water stored in the lake was reduced by about half.
San Diego ranked among the top five hotbeds for innovation nationally over a 12 year period, according to a new study that suggests tech clustering has contributed to a growing economic and political divide in the country.
The Case for Growth Cities report from Brookings Institution’s Metropolitan Policy Program and the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation calls for a massive federal effort to transform eight to 10 “heartland” cities into tech hubs.
There may be a literal energy windfall off the coast of California but it is still unclear whether the federal government will give approval to specific sites and how long it will take before tall turbines are bobbing on the Pacific, sending electricity to customers across the Golden State.
Wind energy’s boosters are eager to see proposed projects get the go-ahead.
“Let’s get a couple of these rolling, get some floating offshore turbines out there and build this over time, which is exactly what you’re seeing on the East Coast,” said Tom Kiernan, CEO of the American Wind Energy Association.
A second spot may need repairs after an unusually wet Thanksgiving Day storm closed the railroad tracks at Del Mar for work over the weekend, transit district officials said Monday.
The “area of concern” is less than a block away from the spot fixed Saturday, North County Transit District Executive Director Matt Tucker said Monday in an email to the district’s board of directors.
The additional job needs an engineering design plan before the work is done, and it may wait until January to be included in the next phase of the district’s ongoing bluff stabilization work, Tucker said.
Two days after county officials ordered the closure of all businesses serving food in Poway, nearly 200 restaurants and bars remained shuttered Monday, awaiting word from state officials that the water supply was safe and they could reopen.
Meanwhile, residents helped themselves to the 400,000 bottles of water made available by the city, and school officials tapped an outside vendor to feed the thousands of students returning from a holiday break.
City officials announced the possible contamination of Poway’s water supply on Saturday, which led to a boil-water advisory being issued Saturday night and orders from the county’s health department to close all restaurants and bars.
The Water News Network is San Diego County’s source for water news and information.
