Despite continued hot and dry conditions in California, the San Diego region is protected from drought impacts this summer and through 2045, the San Diego County Water Authority announced Monday.
Despite continued hot and dry conditions in California, the San Diego region is protected from drought impacts this summer and through 2045, the San Diego County Water Authority announced today.
According to a statement released by the Water Authority, “no shortages or regional water-use mandates are in the forecast, the result of three decades of strategic investments that create an aquatic safety net for San Diego County’s $253 billion economy and quality of life for 3.3 million residents.”
June 21, 2021 – Statewide drought conditions are highlighting the value of regionally and locally controlled water supplies in San Diego County, where the San Diego County Water Authority today announced that the region is protected from drought impacts this summer, and through 2045, despite continued hot and dry conditions. No shortages or regional water-use mandates are in the forecast, the result of three decades of strategic investments that create an aquatic safety net for San Diego County’s $253 billion economy and quality of life for 3.3 million residents.
Almost half of the U.S. has been in a drought since the start of 2021.
Compounding factors, including low rainfall and snowpack, climate change and persisting droughts from previous years, have escalated into extreme dryness.
The prolonged dryness means low water levels are endangering fish species in Oregon and Colorado, 30% of California’s population is in a drought emergency, and the nation’s two biggest reservoirs on the Colorado River — Lake Powell and Lake Mead — are two-thirds empty.
Lake Powell’s water level is the lowest it’s been in decades, and the latest 24-month projections from the Arizona and Utah reservoir show that it’s likely to drop even further — below a critical threshold of 3,525 feet by next year.
The Marin Municipal Water District has taken the first steps toward building an emergency water pipeline across the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge for the first time in nearly 50 years to avoid potentially running out of water next summer.
The district said Friday that it has hired a consulting firm, Woodard & Curran, to find potential water rights holders in the Central Valley willing to sell their allotments. This water could be pumped across the bridge via the pipeline and into Marin’s water system should the drought stretch into winter.
The Helix Water District Board of Directors June 16, honored East County student artists for their winning “Water Is Life” posters in an online awards ceremony.
Southern California students in kindergarten through eighth grade are invited to participate in their regional water agency’s Student Poster Art Contest to increase awareness about water conservation. This year, 231 students from 17 schools within the Helix Water District submitted their posters depicting how to use water wisely.
A proposal to bring down four hydroelectric dams near the California-Oregon border cleared a major regulatory hurdle Thursday, setting the stage for the largest dam demolition project in U.S. history to save imperiled migratory salmon.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission action comes after the demolition proposal almost fell apart last summer, but then a new agreement and additional funding revived it. Thursday’s ruling will allow the utility that runs the dams, PacifiCorp, to transfer its hydroelectric license jointly to the nonprofit Klamath River Renewal Corporation, Oregon and California.
Regulators still must approve the actual surrender of the license. Dam removal could start in 2023.
Record-breaking heat and historic drought in the U.S. West are doing little to discourage cities from planning to welcome millions of new residents in the decades ahead.
From Phoenix to Boise, officials are preparing for a future both with more people and less water, seeking to balance growth and conservation. Development is constrained by the fact that 46% of the 11-state Western region is federal land, managed by agencies like the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management that are tasked with maintaining it for future generations.
The Helix Water District Board of Directors June 16, honored East County student artists for their winning “Water Is Life” posters in an online awards ceremony.
Southern California students in kindergarten through eighth grade are invited to participate in their regional water agency’s Student Poster Art Contest to increase awareness about water conservation. This year, 231 students from 17 schools within the Helix Water District submitted their posters depicting how to use water wisely.
First Place – Sofia Cardenas Loera, Lighthouse Christian Academy, Lemon Grove, Grade 3
Second Place – Tiffany An, Christ Lutheran School, La Mesa, Grade 3
Third Place – Stella Stackhouse, Avocado Elementary School, La Mesa, Grade 2
Honorable Mention – Lucas Regimbal, Christ Lutheran School, La Mesa, Grade 3
Honorable Mention – Sanora Atoe, Lexington Elementary School, El Cajon, Grade 3
First Place – Kaylee Martin, Highlands Elementary School, Spring Valley, Grade 5
Second Place – Valeria Ramirez, St. John of the Cross, Lemon Grove, Grade 6
Third Place – Hannah Maass, Christ Lutheran School, La Mesa, Grade 8
Honorable Mention – Maddy Amezwa Cruz, Literacy First Junior Academy, El Cajon, Grade 8
Honorable Mention – Sarah Cervantes, Christ Lutheran School, La Mesa, Grade 8
Helix Water District 2020 winner Mina Saeed’s entry appears on the September 2021 calendar page. Photo: Metropolitan Water District of Southern California
Winners now move on to compete with other regional winners for the opportunity to appear in the 2022 Metropolitan Water District of Southern California calendar.
Helix Water District students have been successful in recent state competition. In 2021, art from Jose Sabedra, a fourth-grader from Bostonia Language Academy in El Cajon, and Mina Saeed, also a fourth-grader at Lexington Elementary School in El Cajon, appear in the calendar. They won the 2020 Helix Water District competition.
(Editor’s note: The Helix Water District is one of the San Diego County Water Authority’s 24 member agencies that deliver water across the metropolitan San Diego region.)
