By Miriam Raftery

September 8, 2021 (Lakeside) – Kumeyaay activists, including Barona tribal member Bobby Wallace, are organizing a walk in Arizona Sept. 25-28 to protest an Australian mining corporation’s plan to extract lithium that threatens the Hualapai Nation’s water and ancestral sites.

Refund Received from San Diego County Water Authority will help offset future rate

East County News Service

Image: CC by SA-NC

March 18, 2021 (Santee) – Padre Dam Municipal Water District’s Board of Directors has unanimously approved using the recently received $1,157,552 rebate from the San Diego County Water Authority (CWA) to offset the District’s next pass-through rate increase from the CWA. This action will result in a direct benefit to customers by the reduction or potential elimination of a water pass through rate hike in 2022. 

CWA’s Board of Directors announced a plan on February 25, 2021 to distribute a $44.4 million rebate received from Metropolitan Water District (MWD), to its 24 member agencies. Padre Dam’s portion of the rebate is $1,157,552. 

By Tracy DeFore, County of San Diego Communications Office

July 12, 2019 (San Diego) - The County Board of Supervisors approved another step Wednesday toward increasing local drinking water supplies for East County residents.

The Board, acting as the Board of Directors for the County Sanitation District, voted to approve $2.35 million for the County’s contribution to final program development costs of the East County Advanced Water Purification Program.

Free opportunities include entertaining assemblies and more

East County News Service

August 28, 2017 (San Diego's East County) - As students return to class across the region, the San Diego County Water Authority is offering schools, teachers and students an array of water-themed resources, including several that are free.

By Suzanne Potter, Public News Service

March 26, 2017 (Sacramento) -- The U.S. is drastically underfunding water projects, putting communities at risk for a catastrophic failure, according to a new report from the U.S. Water Alliance.

By Miriam Raftery

December 27, 2016 (Sacramento) — With reservoirs rising from December storms, the California Department of Water Resources on December 21^st announced that it will increase its early season estimate of water allocations for 2017.

Public Service Announcement: San Diego County

March 13, 2014 (San Diego)--The County of San Diego needs your help in identifying potential storm water quality improvement projects.  Recently adopted regulations require that the County identify and pursue a variety of on-the-ground projects to improve regional storm water quality.  The first step in this process is to assess and locate potential projects that could be implemented.  

Project types that may be considered include, but are not necessarily limited to, the following categories:

• Stream or riparian area rehabilitation

• Retrofitting existing infrastructure (Green Streets, Low Impact Development, Treatment);

• Regional BMP’s (best management practices for stormwater treatment basins);
• Groundwater recharge projects (infiltration basins);

• Water supply augmentation projects (large cisterns); and

• Land purchases to preserve floodplain functions.

Project suggestions will be accepted until March 28, 2014.  Scroll down for details.

Pollution of earth and water is driving indigenous peoples from their homelands

By Miriam Raftery

April 27, 2013 (San Diego)--Around the world, including here in the U.S.,  native people are losing lands they have occupied for countless generations.  The earth and water that sustained life in their communities is being destroyed –once-mighty rivers and wetlands reduced to barren, parched or even contaminated land.  The story is the same from tribes along the Colorado River to those deep in the Amazon, from the deserts of Southern California to the jungles of Mexico, from the coal fields of Appalachia to the copper mining pits of Arizona to indigenous people’s lands in Canada threatened by the Keystone Pipeline.

The culprit?  Growing demand for energy and water. 

Now, native people are speaking out.  They hope to educate the public to conserve precious resources, sharing knowledge of the heart-breaking price being paid by people who have been given no choice—and whose very cultural identity centers around the lands and waters being lost.

By Janis Mork

January 11, 2013 (San Diego)- On January 9, San Diego Supervisors unanimously agreed to direct the chief administrative officer to work with Borrego Water District to design a plan to address long-term sustainability of groundwater in the Borrego Valley and to report back with potential recommendations.

The ordinance states that “groundwater is being pumped at rates that exceed natural replenishment. This situation referred to as an ‘overdraft condition’ has existed for several decades…. It is the cumulative impact of all users that has resulted in this condition.” An amendment has been proposed to the Groundwater Ordinance to require that private projects fully offset their water use.

At the meeting, a first reading of the groundwater ordinance amendment was read. On January 30, it will be read for a second time and be considered for adoption for the board.

• Bill protects businesses from disability act suits (Sacramento Bee)
• Counties miss deadline to send ballots to overseas, military voters (California Watch)
• More water to be shipped to California; good news for avocado growers (North County Times)

• Fire Chief saves colleague’s life (NBC)
• AT&T opposes SDG&E wildfire recovery request (North County Times)
• Civic leader  Jim Wieboldt drops out of race for La Mesa City Council (La Mesa Patch)
• Grossmont and Alvarado hospitals get B and C grades for safety (La Mesa Patch)
• Bullets fired in field hit close to residents, Hanson Elementary (Ramona Patch)
• Man Who Tried To Kill Wife Sentenced To Life In Prison (10 News)

• Radiation from Japan disaster found along California coast (ABC)
• If California taxpayers paid up, state’s deficit would disappear (Sacramento Bee)
• High-stakes vote nears in California water waters (KPBS)
• California deer population declines as habitat disappears (Sacramento Bee)

• La Mesa, El Cajon to get armored vehicle (San Diego Union-Tribune)
• Program to help chronically homeless showing results (San Diego Union-Tribune)
• Abandoned orchards must be monitored for pests (Sacramento Bee)
• 15-year-old Santana High School student injured in crash awakens from coma (Santee Patch)
• U.S. says beware of ads placed by drug smugglers (San Diego Union-Tribune)
• El Cajon City Council fills vacancy (San Diego Union-Tribune)
• La Mesa home prices trending up (La Mesa Today)
• Feds misled by SoCal Edison on San Onofre changes, group says (KPBS) 

 September 19, 2011 (La Mesa) -- La Mesa's  Environmental Sustainability Commission is holding the fourth annual "Sustain La Mesa" Environmental Festival on Saturday, October 8, from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at Harry Griffen Park, 9550 Milden Street, La Mesa, 91942.[Additional Info]