Twelve percent of the state s population [owe] this $1 billion of utility debt, said Glenn Farrel, director of government relations at the San Diego County Water Authority. That s a lot of people living at the edge.
Farrel estimates that there is $50 million of water bill debt locally due to COVID-19. Numbers reported to the state by water districts in San Diego show almost 70,000 accounts were delinquent as of October 2020. We have a major problem, said Farrel.
There are 24 members of the SDCWA, including the Padre Dam Municipal Water District, which serves a large portion of East County, from Alpine to El Cajon. Carlisle said only 0.5% of water bills are delinquent typically, but during the pandemic, that figure has risen to 3.4%.
San Diegans got a taste of winter weather Saturday. “We were actually excited when we saw the rain,” said Forest Padilla, a San Diego resident. The cold.
Taylor Guitars employees, now owners, at the El Cajon factory prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Taylor Guitars transfers ownership to employees El Cajon-base
Trash is piled near the U.S.-Mexico border, where sewage from Tijuana flows through. / Photo by Adriana Heldiz
On a stormy day, 1 billion gallons of water can rage down the river crossing from Tijuana to San Diego.
None of that water is captured for reuse now among the two desert cities it splits, which are regularly prone to drought, because it’s considered polluted by sewage spills on the Mexican side. If successfully recycled, that water could prove to be valuable as the Southwest grows more water-uncertain due to climate change.
Even so, the occasionally raging river is starting to turn heads in the private sector from companies that’d like to own the water, treat it and sell it back to a government or other thirsty buyers. To get there, it might take securing rights to the water from the state of California or, possibly, a new international agreement.
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There’s nothing like launching a gardening passion by tearing out a hilly front lawn by hand with a saw and crowbar, designing a low-water garden, and then getting it installed. But that’s just what Vista homeowner and novice gardener Robin Ziegler did, starting in 2018 and going through 2019. And all that hard work yielded not just a colorful refuge for birds, butterflies and bees, but also the Vista Irrigation District’s win in the 2020 WaterSmart Landscape Contest.
Digging deep
(Robin Ziegler)
Ziegler and her husband, Michael Goryan, bought their 30-year-old house in 2017 and, while they wanted a drought-tolerant garden, they focused first on renovating the interior. In the meantime, they turned off the irrigation to kill the 150 square feet of front lawn, studded with surprise ankle-breaking dips and holes. But, Ziegler recalled, in spring 2018, there was still growth only what came up were weeds that grew 8 feet tall. At that point, determined to turn the space