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According to the San Diego Public Utilities Department (PUD), a pipe connecting two water mains burst on Bayside Lane sending water gushing through the neighborhood.
In some places, the water level reached nearly halfway up the wheels of passing cars. Some homes in the area had water flowing into their garages. SkyRanger 7 saw cars driving through bumper-high waters.
Some residents reported seeing a van stuck in what appeared to be a sinkhole on Bayside Lane. NBC 7 obtained pictures and video of the truck with its front end stuck in the hole.
The floodwater receded to reveal a large hole in the pavement next to a manhole. The driver told witness Rene Coker it felt like he was driving through sand for a moment before the wheels of his van dipped below the street surface.
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%.
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.