San Diego regional water news roundup Sep 8-14, 2012
Posted by George J Janczyn on September 15, 2012
A selected roundup of news related to San Diego regional water issues. Click headlines for the full story at originating website.
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ENVIRONMENT: Scientists weigh effects of climate change / North County Times : “Rising oceans coinciding with high tides and storm surges could wreak havoc on coastal communities and threaten major water supplies, experts said at an international workshop on sea level rise, held at UC San Diego last week.” |
Efforts to save dying sea dry up at state Capitol / The Desert Sun : “The Salton Sea is already slowly dying, its constant evaporation shrinking its size and making its water increasingly salty. More recently, even efforts to determine who would lead Salton Sea fixes that remain mostly hypothetical have stalled.” |
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Desal plans delayed as negotiations continue / U-T San Diego : “Long-running efforts to craft a deal on a landmark seawater desalination plant in Carlsbad have slowed so that the San Diego County Water Authority has pushed back Thursday’s public meeting for discussing the document.” |
Poseidon water purchase agreement will raise water rates in San Diego / Surfline : “Latest estimates released by Poseidon and SDCWA reveal the true cost for desalinated water has almost tripled since originally proposed, from about $900 per acre-foot to almost $2400 per acre-foot (with no cost cap). Analysts speculate the $2400 estimate is still low.” |
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Salton Sea eyed as culprit of big stink in Calif. / AP via U-T San Diego : “Noses across Southern California were hoping for a sweeter-smelling Tuesday as public officials sought a solid answer for what made Monday so pungent. But even as officials said several factors indicate the Salton Sea as the source of the sulfurous smell, air quality investigators stopped short of declaring with certainty that the saltwater lake 150 miles southeast of Los Angeles was the cause.” |
Metropolitan’s Water Planning and Stewardship Committee discusses desalination in Southern California / Maven’s Notebook : “The Metropolitan Water District’s Water Planning and Stewardship Committee received an update on desalination facilities currently being planned or considered for the Southern California area at their meeting on September 10, 2012.” |
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PAUMA VALLEY: Supervisor backs away from ‘colonia’ designation for rural area / North County Times : “Supervisor Bill Horn, who represents the sparsely populated area in the shadow of Palomar Mountain along with much of North County, said he brought the item to the board after receiving a request for the designation from the private Pauma Valley Water Company.” |
Lake Hodges project now delivering full energy benefits for San Diego region / San Diego County Water Authority : “The San Diego County Water Authority’s Lake Hodges Pumped Storage Project is now fully operational and delivering up to 40 megawatts of electricity to the region, helping San Diego Gas & Electric meet San Diego County’s energy needs in the hot weather of late summer.” |
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Farmers: QSA may pose unreasonable financial burden / Imperial Valley Press : “Environmental attorney Charles DuMars emphasized the need for a concerted on-farm conservation effort when he spoke to the Imperial County Farm Bureau on Wednesday. DuMars was hired by the Imperial Irrigation District to study the Quantification Settlement Agreement and propose a Plan B to the agreement, which makes up the nation’s largest ag-to-urban water transfer.” |
Delays mount for proposed desal project / U-T San Diego : “The schedule for a proposed seawater desalination plant in Carlsbad became less clear on Thursday when the San Diego County Water Authority postponed a Sept. 20 public meeting to review a draft contract for buying water from the facility.” |
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The Salton Sea: death and politics in the great American water wars / Wired Science : “A heinous rotten-egg smell settled into the metropolis, a stench more familiar to residents lining the Salton Sea, some 150 miles to the east. It was this 376-square-mile body of water, created by accident in the middle of the desert over a century ago, that belched up the fetid cloud. And such episodes will continue to plague Southern California as the collapse of the Salton Sea ecosystem accelerates over the coming years.” |
Redlands professor working on Salton Sea project / San Bernardino County Sun : “”Fifteen years ago, when I first began to work on the Salton Sea, the concern was about saving the sea for the sake of fish and wildlife,” Krantz said. “What really is at stake is not the restoration of the Salton Sea. It is not just fish and wildlife anymore. It is all about human health.”” |
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