The pandemic has changed the way many students are attending school, but the health emergency did not stop more than 150 local kids from taking part in the annual Helix Water District art contest.
The water district honored 10 student artists for their winning “Water Is Life” posters. The district held a virtual awards ceremony during its Oct. 28 board meeting.
San Diego County agriculture is well-known for citrus and avocados. Kyle Rosa is counting on coffee joining this list.
Rosa, owner of Bluetail Coffee Grove, started growing coffee on a 2.5-acre farm in San Marcos last year. After 15 years in the finance industry, Rosa and his wife moved from San Francisco to start their new venture. The new farmer quickly turned to the Vallecitos Water District for help establishing smart water use and efficient systems to irrigate his six different specific types of coffee.
The Vallecitos Water District offers a free agricultural irrigation audit to ensure its farming customers are using water aligning best with their crop’s specific needs and water-efficiency standards.
“No one has ever done this in the continental United States,” said Rosa. “To be able to be a pioneer and work on something that has never been done and to learn from mistakes is exciting.”
Coffee farmer Kyle Rosa (left) and Lance Andersen examine irrigation emitters at his San Marcos farm. Photo: Vallecitos Water District
Lance Andersen, agricultural program manager from Mission Resource Conservation District, performed the audit. MRCD provides free agricultural evaluations to farmers and growers through a partnership with Vallecitos and the San Diego County Water Authority. The agricultural audit examined 2,000 of the Bluetail Coffee Groves trees and 4,000 emitters to see how much water is currently used.
Auditors study how evenly water is flowing across the planting area, so growers can make informed decisions on irrigation scheduling and water management. Post-audit, farmers receive a Google image to assist in the best placement for soil moisture sensor stations to monitor irrigation in real time.
“Lance has been able to give us some pointers as he walked through the farm,” said Rosa. “We have some areas of improvement to add swales to retain water when it rains on our slopes and to prevent soil erosion.”
MRCD also provided information about financial assistance available for the installation of the soil moisture sensors.
Vallecitos Water District assisted Rosa in securing an agricultural rate for his irrigation. He worked with Chris Robbins, Vallecitos Water District supervisor of public information/conservation to start the process.
“He could not have made it any easier for me,” said Rosa.
Bluetail Coffee Grove is an organic farm. Rosa’s farm is undergoing the organic certification process, which takes three years.
Kyle Rosa and Lance Andersen perform a walk through as part of an agricultural irrigation audit. Photo: Vallecitos Water District
Rosa has ambitious plans to put San Marcos on the coffee map.
“Coffee has a similarity to wine, where the method of creating a cup of coffee is so diverse and so labor-intensive,” explained Rosa. “When you finally get a cup of coffee, everybody has different tastes. Being able to produce those different tastes for a variety of people while having complex notes within our coffee is really what we are striving for.”
Rosa says he hopes his initial business model will work, allowing him to open his farm to eco-tourism.
“The goal is to expand the coffee to have an eco-tourism set up at the farm, where we can roast and try coffee right here and pull the cherries right off the tree and taste the coffee right here for yourself right in beautiful San Marcos, California.”
Before then, Rosa will open a retail store, Breakers Coffee + Wine in the Del Mar Heights area, expected in Spring 2021.
Two years ago, Cape Town, South Africa, a city of 4 million people, informed its shocked citizens that the city was just a few months away from running out of water due to drought. It was a wake-up call for all of us to become much better stewards of our own water. Luckily, for Cape Towners, innovative water conservation and efficiency measures, smarter data use, expanded water storage, and help from Mother Nature all combined to help them avoid a major water shutoff.
The Helix Water District honored local student artists within its service area for their winning “Water Is Life” posters at a virtual awards ceremony during the District’s board meeting on October 28. Helix promotes the contest to all elementary schools within its service area. This year, 174 students from 14 schools submitted posters depicting how to use water wisely.
The Helix Water District honored local student artists within its service area for their winning “Water Is Life” posters at a virtual awards ceremony during the District’s board meeting on October 28.
Each year, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California holds a regional poster contest for students in kindergarten through sixth grade to increase student’s awareness about water.
Helix promotes the contest to all elementary schools within its service area. This year, 174 students from 14 schools submitted posters depicting how to use water wisely.
First Place – Gabriel Espino, Lemon Avenue Elementary, Grade 3.
Second Place – Marvin Sears III, La Mesa Dale Elementary, Grade 3.
Third Place – Alexander Mollner, St. John of the Cross, Grade 2.
Honorable Mention – Pashaun Tillman, La Mesa Dale Elementary, Grade 3.
Honorable Mention – Lily Griffin, Murdock Elementary, Grade 3.
First Place – Jose Sabedra, Bostonia Language Academy, Grade 4.
Second Place – Nurah Avellano, St. John of the Cross, Grade 6.
Third Place – Mina Saeed, Lexington Elementary, Grade 4.
Honorable Mention – Valeria Ramirez-Quiroz, St. John of the Cross, Grade 5.
Honorable Mention – Giselle Villegas Garcia, Lemon Grove Academy, Grade 5.
The winning posters will be sent to the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California to compete in the annual 2021 “Water Is Life” calendar competition against entries from other Southern California schools.
Fifth grader Valeria Ramirez-Quiroz of St. John of the Cross was a local 2019 winner as a fourth grader, and her poster was selected for the 2020 Metropolitan Water District “Water is Life”calendar.
Winning posters are also posted for display on the district’s website at www.hwd.com and Facebook page.
Helix Water District provides water treatment and distribution for 277,000 people in the cities of El Cajon, La Mesa and Lemon Grove, the community of Spring Valley and areas of Lakeside — east of downtown San Diego. Helix also provides treated water to neighboring Padre Dam, Otay and Lakeside water districts.
The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California adopted a program to provide incentives for replacing toilets at multi-family housing properties. MWD’s Oct. 13 board meeting included approving a $250 incentive to replace toilets with a flush volume of 3.5 gallons or greater and a $125 incentive to replace toilets with a flush volume of 1.6 gallons or greater.
Federal scientists say that La Niña — the phenomenon where Pacific Ocean waters off South America are cooler than normal — is underway this winter.
A commonly held assumption among many Californians is that La Niña means a dry winter is coming, and in years when the opposite occurs, El Niño, a wet winter is considered more likely.
So brown lawns and water rationing are just around the corner, right?
Not necessarily. Looking at historical records, there isn’t a clear pattern. In the Bay Area, La Niña years have been drier than normal only about half the time.
Oceanside finished second in a national water conservation challenge among cities with populations between 100,000 and 299,999, behind only Lakeland, Florida, it was announced Wednesday. During the month of August, Oceanside residents pledged to save water and protect the environment as part of the Wyland National Mayor’s Challenge for Water Conservation.
The City of San Diego announced Thursday it has refinanced a loan with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that city leaders say will save $293 million for taxpayers as the public utilities department begins work on Pure Water San Diego — the largest infrastructure project in the city’s history.
Encinitas, Calif. — Olivenhain Municipal Water District and Encinitas Fire Department invite the public to attend a free online
workshop on October 13 from 2:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. The workshop will cover how to landscape homes and businesses
in a way that protects them from fire damage and improves water efficiency.
