San Diego is flirting with the idea of selling some of its most expensive water to a small water district in Orange County.
The San Diego County Water Authority board signaled its general manager should pursue exploring the sale of some of its de-salted ocean water from a plant in Carlsbad to Moulton Niguel Water District. It’s the second deal San Diego’s recently pursued to move around extra water it has on hand for financial benefit. Back in November, San Diego forwent some of its Colorado River water and instead bought cheaper California water from the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California instead.
Takeaway: The latest pursuit with Moulton Niguel is a signal that San Diego has plenty of water to spare, but is struggling with the price it paid to procure it. Plus two consecutive rainy years means water sales are significantly down, while costs to maintain water systems aren’t dropping at all.
Sweetwater Responds to Floating Solar Opposition
Amid brewing discontent over a floating solar project on the Sweetwater reservoir, its general manager wanted to clarify things.
Sweetwater Authority General Manager Carlos Quintero wrote to Voice of San Diego that the project isn’t a done deal. The water district signed an agreement with an energy company that wanted to build a pilot solar array, but the water district could still back out of the plan before construction.
Yet, dissenters have expressed that it seemed rash to present and approve the terms of that agreement all at the same board meeting and, only afterward, hold public meetings with the community about it.
The Latest on the County’s Post-Flood Hotel Program
The county reports that it has checked 403 families into hotels since its 30-day program for flood victims kicked off early last week.
Another 62 families are registered and ready to be placed, county spokesman Chuck Westerheide wrote in an email.
Many of the move-ins followed a wave of panic last week for some who feared they wouldn’t have places to go when initial hotel vouchers from other groups expired.
Community organizations ultimately gave some families extensions. Westerheide said the county has since tried to keep families in the same hotels and rooms they moved into initially with support from those groups.
Where will they go next? “How long households will be on vouchers is dependent on what additional emergency lodging pathways may be available to them at the local, state, and federal levels,” Westerheide said.
He said the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s major disaster declaration for the county earlier this week authorized individual assistance for families whose homes were flooded out on Jan. 22. The FEMA program may help with longer-term lodging. Westerheide said the county also plans to continue to work with partners to help families who need places to stay after the initial 30-day program.
NBC 7 got more details on the assistance FEMA can provide flood victims.
In Other News
- Now that a county-funded migrant center has shuttered, nonprofits are scrambling to come up with plans to aid migrants that U.S. Customs and Border Protection drops off at local transit stations. (Union-Tribune)
- Santee firefighters are pushing for a November sales-tax measure to lower response times and address infrastructure needs. (CBS 8)
- What City Council President Sean Elo-Rivera deemed “an unfortunate administrative error” by the city has spurred a dispute over a City Heights community garden. (inewsource)
- A three-judge appellate court panel has decided a Black man should get another chance to prove that a 2022 traffic stop and arrest by San Diego police was the result of unintended racial bias. (Union-Tribune)
- The biggest news in San Diego on Thursday: China plans to send two pandas to the San Diego Zoo by the end of the summer. (The Associated Press)
The Morning Report was written by MacKenzie Elmer and Lisa Halverstadt. It was edited by Andrea Lopez-Villafaña.
Leave a comment