EAST COUNTY ROUND-UP --- MID-MAY

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East County Roundup highlights the best stories about East County issues found in other publications.

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MENTALLY ILL DETAINEES’ TREATMENT AT HOSPITALS WORRIES ADVOCATES

San Diego Union-Tribune (May 18, 2009)--Federal immigration officials send mentally ill detainees to a private psychiatric hospital in La Mesa, where they are shackled to beds 24 hours a day, prohibited from watching television or using the telephone, and cut off from family.

Disability-rights lawyers and advocates for the mentally ill say the conditions at Alvarado Parkway Institute in La Mesa violate state and federal laws governing treatment of mentally ill people. They also say the hospital, known as API, is one of a little-known network of private hospitals that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement uses to hold severely mentally ill detainees around the country, often out of reach of lawyers and even their families.

 

SUNRISE PLAN HINGES ON FOREST IMPACT

Opponents say SDG&E's new route not studied

San Diego Union-Tribune (May 9, 2009)-- San Diego Gas & Electric planners are figuring where they want to place the towers for the Sunrise Powerlink.

But a big piece of the plan to build the massive and controversial power line connecting Imperial County to San Diego has yet to fall into place: SDG&E does not yet have permission to build it across the Cleveland National Forest.

The man who will make that decision, Forest Supervisor William Metz, said yesterday he is still sifting through thousands of pages of environmental documents – and he's a long way from making up his mind.

 

VALLEY CENTER WATER BOARD ADOPTS VOLUNTARY 8% CUTS

Valley Roadrunner (May 13, 2009)-- It’s official. On July 6 the water district’s customers will be asked to save 8%.


Last week, after the San Diego County Water Authority (SDCWA) took action to call for Level 2 water shortage response, and after a short public hearing, the Valley Center Municipal Water District adopted an 8% voluntary reduction program.

 

OTAY WATER BOARD REJECTS MANDATORY CONSERVATION

San Diego Union-Tribune (May 13, 2009) SPRING VALLEY – The Otay Water District board decided Wednesday against requiring mandatory water conservation for its customers in southeastern San Diego County.

Board members, by a 4-1 vote, said the limits on water use in a Level 2 drought are not yet needed for Otay because of increased sales of reclaimed water and voluntary conservation efforts by its customers.

 

CARLSBAD DESALNATION PLANT GETS WATER BOARD NOD

San Diego Union-Tribune ( May 13, 2009)-- The developer of ocean-water desalination project proposed in Carlsbad won unanimous approval from the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board Wednesday to build the largest plant of its kind in North America.

 

NEW SEPTIC SYSTEM REGULATIONS COULD COST HOMEOWNERS

The Alpine Sun (May 14, 2009) --  The California State Water Resources Control Board is currently considering new regulations regarding onsite wastewater treatment systems (septic systems). The new rules come nearly ten years after a state bill was approved requiring statewide wastewater regulation.

 

PEDESTRIAN BRIDGE OPENS

San Diego Union-Tribune (May 16, 2009) --The San Dieguito River Park officially opened a pedestrian bridge over Lake Hodges yesterday, which was Bike to Work Day. Interstate 15 is shown in the background. The bridge will be open from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily.

 

ESCONDIDO: SHRINKING WATER SUPPLY PROMPTS IRRIGATION RESTRICTIONS

Council exempts some parks, postpones fountain prohibition

North County Times (May 20, 2009) -- Residents and businesses can only water their landscaping three days per week under restrictions approved Wednesday by the City Council.

But the rules, which take effect July 1, were revised to exclude a moratorium on yard fountains and to allow the city to continue liberally watering the grass in some heavily-used city parks.


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