The State of California

Environment Report: We’re Diving Into the Western Water Wars | Voice of San Diego voiceofsandiego.org Environment Report: We’re Diving Into the Western Water Wars MacKenzie Elmer   A view of Lake Mead on Jan. 31, 2023. / Photo by Joseph Griffin for Voice of San Diego If you’ve been following this newsletter for any amount of time, you won’t want to miss this year’s Politifest. ( Get your tickets here. )  Politifest combines two things our newsroom loves: Politics and festivities. While we don’t feature the dunk tanks and petting zoos of the original inception of the event (much to the chagrin of our CEO Scott Lewis, and frankly, myself). But this year we’ll fill the halls of the University of San Diego on Saturday, Oct. 7 with some of the biggest players in western water politics.   In two years, almost every major agreement currently keeping battle swords sheathed on the ...

In 2023, 171 miles are environmentally cleared and 119 miles are under construction, with 52 miles in advanced design.  The HSR Authority has environmentally cleared 422 miles of the Phase 1 section. Here’s a look at the progress and the Legislative Analyst’s Office assessment for 2023: California's Rocky Rail Road The California High-Speed Rail is a major infrastructure project by the state of California, United States. It is designed to be a high-speed rail system that connects major cities in California, offering a faster and more efficient mode of transportation compared to traditional rail and road options. The original voter proposition for the California High-Speed Rail Project was known as Proposition 1A. It was a bond measure that appeared on the ballot during California's general election on November 4, 2008. Proposition 1A authorized the issuance of $9.95 billion in general obligation bonds to help fund the development and construction of a high-speed ...

San Diego Region Stormwater Capture and Use Feasibility Study (SWCFS) – Project Clean Water projectcleanwater.org The County of San Diego Stormwater Capture and Use Feasibility Study conducted a County-wide analysis to determine the feasibility of planning, constructing, operating, and managing facilities that capture and use stormwater for beneficial uses. Potential beneficial uses of captured stormwater include: Water Supply Irrigation Hydrologic Restoration Water Conservation Key outcomes from the study include: The San Diego Region has limited natural opportunities for storage (groundwater basins, lakes); constructed storage opportunities can increase the volume of stormwater harvested for reuse. Capture and use alternatives are already being implemented in San Diego Region, including green infrastructure and low-flow div...

San Diego County's 11 Watersheds What to Do - Home and Property owners A Watershed is an area of land that drains to a single waterway.  In San Diego, every one of our 11 watersheds drains to the ocean. Making sure the water draining from our homes and urban centers has many chances to soak into landscape along the way means when the water gets to our lakes, rivers, and the ocean it will be cleaner, having been filtered by the soil rather than carrying surface pollutants off our roofs, streets, lawns, etc.   Once in the soil the water can provide numerous ecological services including hydrating plant life, preventing erosion, allowing for healthy microbiology of the soil, and replenishing aquifers.  The quicker water gets into the soil, the slower it moves through the environment, which means it has a greater opportunity to service the human, plant, and animal community long after rain events.  This also means we have less surface flow during major ev...

Comparison of stormwater biofiltration systems in Southeast Australia and Southern California - Ambrose - 2015 - WIREs Water - Wiley Online Library alternate link - https://escholarship.org/content/qt3hj6r735/qt3hj6r735.pdf?t=p81ugk wires.onlinelibrary.wiley.com Richard F. Ambrose Corresponding Author - Richard F. Ambrose Department of Environmental Health Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA Correspondence to: rambrose@ucla.edu Search for more papers by this author   Brandon K. Winfrey , Department of Environmental Health Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA Search for more papers by this author First published: 02 February 2015   Abstract Stormwater biofilters (also called rain gardens, bioretention systems, and bioswales) are used to manage stormwater runoff in urbanized environments. Som...