Tag Archive for: Water Infrastructure

Biden Budget Seeks Boost for EPA Core Programs and Research

/in , , /by /Bloomberg Lawby Stephen Lee, Dean Scott, Jennifer Hijazi, Bobby Magill, Ellen M. Gilmer

President Joe Biden’s fiscal 2022 budget lays out a 24.1% boost to the EPA’s core rule-writing and enforcement programs and a 7.5% increase in staffing to get the work done, according to a detailed blueprint released on Friday.

The plan envisions a $3.4 billion request to implement the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, and other statutes, up from $2.8 billion in the current budget. That funding would cover a huge range of activities, such as creating ways to attain ambient air quality standards and overseeing states’ management of hazardous waste.

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Water Authority Board Approves 2020 Urban Water Management Plan

/in , /by

May 27, 2021 – The San Diego County Water Authority Board of Directors today approved the Water Authority’s 2020 Urban Water Management Plan for timely submission to the state. The plan highlights how regional investments in a “water portfolio approach” to supply management and a sustained emphasis on water-use efficiency mean that San Diego County will continue to have reliable water supplies through the 2045 planning horizon – even during multiple dry years.

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Water Authority Wins Four Awards for Outstanding Projects

/in , , /by /Water News Network Quoted: San Diego County Water Authority

The American Public Works Association and American Society of Civil Engineers recently presented the San Diego County Water Authority with four awards for construction projects that exemplified outstanding skill, dedication and collaboration from staff in many departments. All of the projects were underway or completed during the COVID-19 pandemic, and project teams navigated shutdowns, adapted to health and safety restrictions, and overcame many other uncertainties – in addition to typical challenges encountered during construction projects.

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Water Infrastructure Program, Management Plan on Poway City Council Agenda

/in , , /by /Pomerado News Chieftainby Emily Sorensen Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

Two water-related items are on the Poway City Council agenda for its 7 p.m. meeting Tuesday.

The council will receive an update on its ongoing Water Infrastructure Improvement Program. It will also be asked to adopt the 2020 Urban Water Management Plan.

The Water Infrastructure Improvement Program update will include current planning and design level cost estimates, said Aaron Beanan, director of finance. The council will also be asked to adopt a resolution authorizing reimbursement of some water capital improvement expenditures.

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That Mississippi River Pipeline? Bureau of Reclamation Weighed In About A Decade Ago

/in , , /by /KJZZby Ron Dungan

The Arizona Legislature wants to look into the feasibility of pumping water from the Mississippi River to Arizona.

But the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has already studied the idea, and weighed in on the project in 2012.

The agency studied factors such as cost, legal issues, power use and the amount of time the project would take.

A report estimated the project could cost up to $14 billion; the timetable was around 30 years.

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Water Usage Down Sharply in San Diego, Shrinking City’s Reliance on Expensive Imported Supplies

/in , , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby David Garrick Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

San Diego’s vulnerability to water shortages and drought is shrinking significantly because residents and businesses are using less water and city officials are boosting the local supply.

A new city analysis shows local water use dropped sharply from 81.5 billion gallons in 2007 to about 57 billion gallons in 2020, even though the city’s population has grown about 1 percent per year over that time.

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Humanity’s Challenge of the Century: Conserving Earth’s Freshwater Systems

/in , /by /Mongabay Newsby Saul Elbein

On April 11, 2020, a band of fighters stormed and seized a water control station in the Libyan Sahara. Taking employees prisoner, they occupied a key nexus that helps move 1.2 million cubic meters (317 million gallons) of water per day — 480 Olympic-sized swimming pools — from freshwater aquifers beneath the desert down to the coast. The raiders flipped a switch and at a stroke, 400 kilometers (250 miles) away, in the capital Tripoli, 2 million people’s taps went dry. One of many such attacks, this battle in the intensifying global water wars has dire portent for Libya and the world. The country’s water system had once been a crown jewel of 20th century hydraulic engineering, part of a global constellation of megaprojects that allowed cities in water-starved regions to grow into the millions.

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Critical Infrastructure Flaws Surface After Years of Underinvestment in Energy, Other Sectors, Analysts Say

/in , , /by /Utility Diveby David Jones

The risk to critical infrastructure is a long festering concern in the cybersecurity industry. Researchers, corporate security officers and government experts feared that energy producers, utilities and water systems lacked the manpower and investment in security.

The risk increased with the exposure of industrial control systems to the open internet and connected to IT systems through automation.

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San Diego Spared as Newsom Declares Drought Emergency in 41 of California’s 58 Counties

/in , , /by /Times of San Diegoby Reuters Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

Governor Gavin Newsom on Monday issued an expanded “drought emergency proclamation” for 41 of the state’s 58 counties, citing above-average temperatures and dry conditions for April and May.

So far, Southern California has been spared the worst of the drought, and the San Diego County Water Authority has said it has supplies to withstand several dry years.

“Gov. Newsom’s latest drought emergency declaration is a grim reminder of the growing water supply challenges across California — and of the value of three decades of our collective dedication to use water efficiently combined with strategic investments that protect San Diego County from dry years,” said Gary Croucher, board chair of the water authority.

“Thanks to efforts of ratepayers, the water authority, and our 24 member agencies, we have sufficient water supplies for 2021 and the foreseeable future,” he said.

 

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Pure Water Oceanside’s New Virtual Reality Video

/in , , /by /Water News Network

To celebrate Water Awareness Month in May and highlight the value of water, the City of Oceanside has unveiled its new virtual reality video tour. The 360-degree video shows the water recycling process that prepares water for Pure Water Oceanside. The advanced water purification project will create a new local source of high-quality drinking water that is clean, safe, drought-proof and environmentally sound.

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