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Coronado Mayor, Chief Of EPA Discuss Repeated Tijuana Sewage Spills

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

Coronado’s mayor flew to Oklahoma this week to talk with the head of the Environmental Protection Agency about possible solutions to the recurring Tijuana sewage spills that sully the San Diego County coastline. Mayor Richard Bailey and Administrator Scott Pruitt spoke one-on-one for about 20 minutes Tuesday during an annual meeting between leading environmental experts and regulators from Mexico, the United States and Canada. “We discussed possible next steps and (Pruitt) expressed a strong desire for some tangible progress in the very near future,” Mayor Richard Bailey said.

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OPINION: Proposed First-Ever Tax On Water Got The Demise It Deserved

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

It’s 2018, not 1918, and the idea that an estimated 360,000 California residents don’t have access to clean, safe water in their homes is both appalling and hard to fathom. While this problem is concentrated in the Central Valley, it’s a concern in rural agricultural areas across the state, including in San Diego County.

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OPINION: Can You Believe California Has Same-Day Laundry And Shower Limits? No, You Can’t.

/in , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby Luis Gomez

Is it suddenly illegal for Californians to take a shower and do laundry on the same day? And are Californians fleeing the state because of these “limits”? No. Seriously — no. A conservative columnist drew pushback and other reactions on social media on Wednesday when she made the declaration about ex-Californians in a column and tied it to a bogus claim that a new state law makes it illegal for people to shower and do their laundry on the same day.

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SDG&E To Add Five New Battery Storage Facilities

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

In California’s quest to blend more renewable energy sources into the power grid, energy storage has repeatedly become one of the answers the state’s policymakers have turned to. Late last week, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) approved a proposal from San Diego Gas & Electric to build five new energy storage projects, each using lithium-ion battery technology, at facilities in San Diego, Poway, Escondido, Fallbrook and San Juan Capistrano. The projects will total 83.5 megawatts — enough to power about 55,000 homes for four hours.

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Cool May Breaks San Diego’s Long Warm Spell

/in , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby Robert Krier

San Diego’s warm spell is broken. When the clock struck midnight on Thursday, a 54-month run without a cooler-than-normal month ended. The last time a month was cooler than normal in town was October 2013 — 4½ years ago. It was a remarkable, rare run of warmth. There have been other extended warm spells in the city’s past, most notably in the early 1980s, but none were quite like the one that just ended. What caused the extended warm spell, and what does it mean?

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OPINION: Water Tax Proposal Poor Policy

/in , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby Mark Muir Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

Like a bad penny, a plan to tax water keeps turning up in Sacramento. That’s right: under two proposals circulating in the Capitol, California would start taxing the most fundamental resource on the planet. Such taxes would needlessly drive up costs for families already struggling to make ends meet and undermine the very goals that proponents profess.

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OPINION: Yes On Proposition 68’s $4 Billion Bond

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

Proposition 68, which was placed on the ballot by the California Legislature, would authorize the sale of $4 billion in bonds to establish and rehabilitate state and local parks and to pay for environmental, water infrastructure and flood protection projects. Opponents raise fair questions about the wisdom of new state borrowing in a year in which the state is running a big surplus. Supporters respond by saying it’s traditional to use bonds to pay for capitol improvements and by emphasizing the bond responds to real needs, starting with its focus on adding parks to neglected poor communities.

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OPINION: Tijuana Sewage Spills Finally Get The Attention They Deserve

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

Effluent from Tijuana’s broken sewage system coming ashore in the United States has become a routine part of life on San Diego County’s southern coast. It’s why parts of the Imperial Beach shoreline were closed more than five months a year in each of 2015, 2016 and 2017, and why dozens of Border Patrol agents have been sickened by exposure to the muck.

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SDG&E And Firefighters Brace For A Rough Fire Season

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

Traditionally, fire season in Southern California ran from about the beginning of May through the end of November. But not anymore. Last year, for example, the Lilac Fire that swept through large parts of Bonsall, charring about 4,100 acres and destroying 157 structures, was sparked on the morning of Dec. 7. “It really is a year-round season,” said Cal Fire and County Fire Authority Chief Tony Mecham.

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Head Of Federal Water Agency Overseeing Efforts To Combat Tijuana Sewage Steps Down

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

The top United States official at the international agency charged with overseeing efforts to stem ongoing water pollution in the Tijuana River Valley stepped down on Friday. The departure of Edward Drusina, former commissioner of the U.S. section of the International Boundary and Water Commission, or IBWC, comes as the agency continues to face legal attacks from South Bay cities that routinely shutter beaches due to pollution from south of the border.

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