By Miriam Raftery

May 20, 2025 (San Diego) – Years after the Cottonwood Sand Mine was first proposed along the Sweetwater River on the site of the Cottonwood Golf course in Rancho San Diego, the San Diego County Planning Commission will hold a hearing on the proposed sand mine. The latest draft environmental impact report can be viewed here.

The hearing, originally set for April, will now be held Friday, June 13 at 9a.m. at the San Diego County Operations Center hearing room, 5520 Overland Ave., San Diego.

The Valle de Oro Community Panning Group in March voted 10-1 to oppose the controversial project, with one abstention, as ECM reported.

Initiative would serve as a model for community-led energy resilience, delivering more reliable power and improved energy security for Borrego’s most vulnerable residents and businesses

File photo, left:  Sunbeams over Anza-Borrego Desert near Borrego Springs

By Gabriela Dow

May 16, 2025 (Borrego Springs) -- The Borrego Springs Microgrid Collaborative (BSMC) has submitted a grant application for funding through San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) under the California Microgrid Incentive Program (MIP). California Senate Bill 1339, enacted 2018, directed the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to develop microgrid policies, leading to the MIP. 

This funding opportunity is a critical step in advancing a community microgrid that enhances energy reliability, resilience, and sustainability for Borrego Springs – a community of just over 3,000 residents in San Diego County, surrounded by Anza-Borrego Desert State Park.

The MIP was established to improve electricity reliability, increase resilience in high-risk communities, and promote clean energy technologies. This milestone marks an important step toward a more sustainable and reliable energy future for the Borrego Springs community.

Residents launch petition to keep lake open

By Karen Pearlman

Photo, left, by Miriam Raftery:  Lake Murray

May 12, 2025 (San Diego) – Lake Murray is one of several local reservoirs that may see their hours of operation get slashed starting next year because of budget issues in the city of San Diego.

To cover the city’s $258 million deficit in its budget, the San Diego City Council is considering reducing the hours of both Lake Murray and Miramar Lake from seven days a week to just two – Saturday and Sunday.

Other outlying bodies of water overseen by the city of San Diego, including the El Capitan Reservoir, Lake Sutherland and Barrett Lake, are also slated for reductions in hours.

By Miriam Raftery

March 29, 2025 (La Mesa) – La Mesa Councilmember Laura Lothian will host a town hall community discussion on a battery storage facility proposed on El Paso St. The town hall will take place Wednesday, April 9 from 5:30 to 7 p.m. at Brew Coffee Spot, 6101 Lake Murray Blvd.

Heartland Fire Chief Brent Koch, Heartland Acting Fire Marshall Rebecca Winscott, and La Msa Director of Community Development Lynette Santos will also participate in the discussion.

Battery storage facilities are key to expanding renewable energy production such as wind and solar energy, enabling power to be utilized even when the sun doesn’t shine or the wind doesn’t blow.

But lithium ion battery storage facilites have also sparked fires, most notably a fire at a large battery storage site in Otay Mesa, where some nearby businesses had to evacuate for two weeks.

By Miriam Raftery

March 25, 2025 (Rancho San Diego) – Today, the Joint Powers Authority (JPA) for the Water Conservation will meet to weigh opens for long-term funding and stability of the Garden at Cuyamaca College.

At its Feb. 25 meeting, the board discussed future funding options after the City of San Diego’s representative Nicole Beaulieu DeSantis announced intent for San Diego to withdraw from the JPA in light of the city’s budget crisis. Helix and Otay water district representatives voiced optimism that their agencies will likely be able to fill the funding gap left by San Diego’s departure and avert having other agencies leave the JPA.

County’s Planning Group to hear controversial proposal on April 18

Story and photos by Karen Pearlman

Photo,left: Valle de Oro Community Planning Group members during packed hearing on Cottonwood Sand Mine

March 20, 2025 (Rancho San Diego)  – More than 100 residents who would be most affected by the proposed Cottonwood Sand Mine gathered in force Tuesday, March 18 at the Rancho San Diego Library to let the Valle de Oro Community Planning Group know they don’t want it in their neighborhood.

After listening to more than two dozen people share their concerns, the community planning group voted 11-0 to recommend opposing the project that would see 214 acres of the former 280-acre Cottonwood Golf Course along Willow Glen Drive in Rancho San Diego turned into a digging site for sand mining for at least 10 years. 

The group also voted 10-1, with one abstention, to not agree with a design exception review to waive the undergrounding overhead utilities along Willow Glen Road.

By Leorah Gavidor

March 13, 2025 (Campo) -- When Urban Timber partners Jessica Van Arsdale and Dan Herbst learned they had just a few months to move their well-established tree salvage business, the couple had to scramble to find a place to move hundreds of tons of logs that they had saved from the landfill. The company that saves trees from urban displacement was itself facing displacement. After a few weeks of major stress and uncertainty, Urban Timber found its rural salvation in East County.

East County News Service

March 1, 2025 (Mt. Helix) --  Mt. Helix Park invites you to Nature Day atop Mt. Helix on March 15 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

This event will feature live animals, a butterfly release, booths from over 30 nature organizations, activities, crafts and a native plant sale.

By Miriam Raftery

Photo via Alt National Park Service:  upside down flag hung by employees at Yosemite National Park signals dire distress

February 25, 2025 (Washington D.C.) – In what’s been dubbed a Valentine’s Day massacre, Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has fired 1,000 National Park Service employees from the nation’s 63 national parks, plus another 2,000 U.S. Forest Service workers. Additional cuts target Bureau of Land Management’s 245 million acres and other federal lands.  The action is creating havoc, including in California, which has more national parks than any other state.

East County News Service

February 9, 2025 (Jamul) -- The Jamul-Dulzura Planning Group is seeking funds from San Diego County’s Department of Public Works to develop a community park in Jamul. While exploring potential locations for the park, the Planning Group has launched a survey asking community members what features they would like to see in the new community park.

“As we explore potential locations for this park, we want to ensure it meets the needs and desires of our community,” an email from the planning group states. To take the survey, click here.

By Alastair Bland, CalMatters

CalMatters is a public interest journalism venture committed to explaining how California’s state Capitol works and why it matters

Photo via Calif. Dept. of Water Resources:  A drone provides a view of a section of the California Aqueduct within the California State Water Project, located near John R. Teerink Pumping Plant.

January 27, 2025 (Central Valley, Calif.) - President Donald Trump signed a sweeping executive order Sunday that told federal agencies to “immediately take action” to deliver more Central Valley water and eliminate rules that stand in the way, including endangered species protections.

By Henri Migala

Photo: cc via Bing

January 22, 2025 (Washington D.C.) -- On Monday, January 20, President Donald Trump ordered the U.S. to withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement for the second time, once again placing the world's top historic emitter of greenhouse gases outside the global pact aimed at pushing nations to tackle climate change.

The withdrawal comes amid increasingly severe wildfires, hurricanes and other severe weather disasters fueled in large part by rapidly accelerating climate change. A National Climate Assessment study found that climate change is affecting every region in the U.S., across economic sectors.

Far from taking any other steps to reduce carbon emissions, however, President Trump has issued executive orders to end actions aimed at cutting carbon and increase use of fossil fuels that accelerate climate change.

His administration has also deleted all climate change information and references from federal websites, eliminating access to key data for researchers, the press, and the public.

Drop-off locations and curbside pickup info for all San Diego County residents

Source: I Love a Clean San Diego

Image: CC via Bing

December 14, 2024 (San Diego) -- Did you know a Christmas tree can take hundreds of years to decompose in a landfill due to lack of oxygen? San Diego residents can help prevent waste and save landfill space by transforming their old Christmas trees into nutrient-rich compost or mulch.

The County of San Diego and I Love a Clean San Diego make it easy for residents to recycle their real Christmas trees by compiling a list of drop-off locations and instructions for curbside pick-up. The countywide recycling resource, WasteFreeSD.org, hosts the 2024/2025 Christmas Tree Recycling Guide with listings for curbside and drop-off locations.