MacKenzie Elmer, journalist.

Nick Serrano, chair of @sdcwa/@toddgloria’s deputy, says Metropolitan should pause its Pure Water wastewater recycling project. San Diego is building its own right now. But he says Met should take some of San Diego’s Colorado River supply instead. #politifest2025

San Diego's public power company is offering to subsidize customers who install solar + batteries on their homes. There's a $55 million pot to draw from, all redistributed revenue from the energy bills San Diegan's pay. tinyurl.com/3xeaeybh via @uniontribune

Sweetwater Authority Joins Stampede Away from County Water Authority The agency supplying drinking water to a large swath of South San Diego County is exploring a groundwater desalination project that could reduce or even eliminate the agency’s dependence on expensive…

Sweetwater Authority, which already buys very little water from @sdcwa, is looking to get completely off the teat with a groundwater desalination project reports @voiceofsandiego.org @jimhinch voiceofsandiego.org/2025/10/01/s...

Politifest | Oct. 4, 2025 ​Politifest 2025 is scheduled for Saturday, October 4, 2025, at the University of San Diego's Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies. This annual public affairs summit, organized by Voice of San Diego,...

Hearing a lot of concerns from San Diegans about the high cost of rent, electricity, water and childcare at City Council today. - If that speaks to you, join us for @voiceofsandiego.org Solutions Showdown this Saturday at #Politifest2025 voiceofsandiego.org/event/politi...

Councilman Kent Lee throws shade at Mayor @toddgloria during water rate hike debate: “Time for administration to look to its leadership team and rebuild trust from the public…We need substantive change from the 11th floor and the responsibility for that must start from the top.”

Amid handwringing at San Diego City Hall over next week’s vote to hike water rates, city analysts dropped a harrowing report revealing how easily the department that handles water and wastewater could collapse without them. voiceofsandiego.org/2025/09/26/s... @voiceofsandiego.org

89.5 FM (97.7 FM Calexico) KPBS-FM, part of KPBS Public Media, is a non-commercial public radio station licensed to San Diego State University, broadcasting in San Diego on 89.5 FM and on 97.7 FM in Calexico, Imperial County. Starting...

I’ll be live on @kpbs.org with fellow enviro journos Philip Salata and Tammy Murga live at noon talkin’ Tijuana River sewage crisis blues. Listen in:

City Staff Deflect Blame Away from Pure Water Before San Diego’s Big Water Rate Vote City staff dropped updated costs of a huge wastewater-to-drinking water recycling project showing that its water would be cheaper than buying from the Water Authority.

San Diego City Coucil's fee fatigue will likely overboil during Tuesday's vote to massively hike 💧+ 🚽 rates. Who will they blame? City staff are trying to protect Pure Water from their ire, pointing fingers at @sdcwa for mounting costs. Let's unpack that.
voiceofsandiego.org/2025/09/24/c...

Amid a data center boom, California lawmakers pass a bill to track water use The AI-driven data center boom is adding strain on the West’s water. New legislation in California would require data centers to report how much water they use.

California passed a bill that would make data centers disclose their water use. 💧

With AI driving a boom in an already dry region, the bill aims to help communities protect water supplies. It now awaits Gov. Newsom’s signature.

@ianjames.bsky.social in @latimes.com: www.latimes.com/environment/...

San Diegans Owe a Desal Company $35 million for Unmade Water The plant had to shut down operations to make state-mandated upgrades, but the San Diego County Water Authority still must pay for the water it would have been making during that time.

The Water Authority has to pay up for $35 million of yet-unmade drinkable ocean water. The longer it weights, the more that water will cost.  voiceofsandiego.org/2025/09/22/s... @voiceofsandiego

This is a very cute move by the Pentagon.
apnews.com/article/pent...

Environment Report: Where Oh Where Are My Tijuana River Sewage Updates The agency that used to tell us what the heck was happening with the Tijuana River sewage crisis has scaled back public information under new leadership.

Environment Report: Information about the Tijuana River sewage crisis is harder to get under Trump's pick to lead the
@usibwc.
That's frustrating and further obfuscates an already "turbid" issue. voiceofsandiego.org/2025/09/15/e... @voiceofsandiego.org

County Spent $5.2 Million Letting Covid-Era PPE Sit in a Warehouse Until It Expired A local foundation said the county contacted them to reuse most of it at medical schools in Baja California but then pulled out of their contract.

Nobody will say whether 43 shipping containers of expired COVID-era PPE the county spent millions to store is sitting in a landfill. One non-profit says it was supposed to transport it for reuse in Mexico. voiceofsandiego.org/2025/09/15/c... @voiceofsandiego.org

Very intertwined.

San Diego County spent $5.2 million storing 43 shipping containers-worth of PPE from COVID in a private warehouse. Only months before much of it expired did the county act to rehome it. Much of it may now be sitting in a landfill.
voiceofsandiego.org/2025/09/15/c... @voiceofsandiego

More Mosquitoes Test Positive for West Nile Virus Mosquitoes collected recently in routine monitoring in the City Heights and Skyline neighborhoods of San Diego have tested positive for West Nile virus, prompting County officials to remind people to…

Well damn, missed this news - West Nile virus-carrying mosquitos identified in City Heights and Skyline neighborhoods. 20% of ppl infected develop fever. Risks highest for very young and old. www.countynewscenter.com/more-mosquit...

In today’s Morning Report: The sewage- and trash-plagued Tijuana River swelled again yesterday after a water line broke in Tijuana. But none of the new odor sensors the county installed in South Bay were online yesterday. voiceofsandiego.org/2025/09/10/m...

The El Niño-Southern Oscillation and Drought Outlook in the United States | September 8, 2025 | Drought.gov The El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is a recurring phenomenon defined by shifts in tropical Pacific Ocean sea surface temperatures, ocean currents, and overlying atmospheric winds.  La Niña…

Drought conditions looks likely in the Southwest as La Niña seasonal swing expected to continue through January.

Blowing Up the Water Authority Isn’t Off the Table at LAFCO The group that rubber stamped a divorce from the agency plans to look at getting rid of the agency altogether.  

Dismantling San Diego’s biggest water broker could be what local boundary referees recommend later this year in the face of ever-rising water rates. voiceofsandiego.org/2025/09/09/b... @voiceofsandiego.org

Tijuana River is flowing again - this time due to a potable water pipeline rupture in Tijuana that's knocked-out water for hundreds of neighborhoods there.
But this also means that there's probably sewage headed towards San Diego's South Bay beaches.

How the City Will Save Sunset Cliffs from Sea Level Rise The city is proposing to move cliff parking onto the street and eliminate a lane of traffic at the southern point at Sunset Cliffs.

Lot lizards may have their lairs removed from Sunset Cliffs bluff tops under the city’s plan to move the park inland as the sea level rises. voiceofsandiego.org/2025/08/26/h... @voiceofsandiego.org

How the City Will Save Sunset Cliffs from Sea Level Rise The city is proposing to move cliff parking onto the street and eliminate a lane of traffic at the southern point at Sunset Cliffs.

The days of parking at Sunset Cliffs for its namesake views may be over — because sea level rise is eating away at the bluff’s underbelly.
How San Diego plans to rescue this beloved surf and view spot.

voiceofsandiego.org/2025/08/26/h... @voiceofsandiego.org

This Sir Douglas Mawson quote from @helen-amanda.bsky.social study on the abrupt and unknown ice loss of Antarctica.
"We had come to probe its mystery, we had hoped to reduce it to terms of science, but there was always the 'indefinable' which held aloof, yet riveted our souls,"

How the City Will Save Sunset Cliffs from Sea Level Rise The city is proposing to move cliff parking onto the street and eliminate a lane of traffic at the southern point at Sunset Cliffs.

How San Diego plans to save Sunset Cliffs from sea level rise includes -- brace yourself -- sacrificing those sunset-facing parking lots perched on the bluff tops.
voiceofsandiego.org/2025/08/26/h... @voiceofsandiego.org

So MWD is going to talk about their new GM tomorrow … but in closed session. 🤔

WTH is a compost-trash/landfill-food waste bin, @petco? These are opposing waste types.

But the city also isn’t cracking down on bad composting yet.

When I visited the landfill, processing compost was at a standstill because the huge compost grinder was down. It hit a piece of metal someone threw in their green bin.

Why San Diego Is Sorting Trash from Compost Bins by Hand In an effort to combat trash contamination in green bin organic waste, the city is mulling whether to hire human trash pickers on a regular basis.  

The City Of San Diego is picking trash out of its new green bin compost waste by hand at the landfill:  voiceofsandiego.org/2025/08/20/s... @voiceofsandiego.org

Environment Report: Why Utilities Put a Dollar Value on Your Life The CPUC has struggled to understand how investor-owned utilities decide to spend their money when it comes to customer safety. That’s changing.  

After a gas pipeline explosion leveled a San Bruno neighborhood in 2010, the CPUC admitted it didn’t know how the utilities it regulated made spending decisions on safety.

Fifteen years later and it’s still figuring that out: voiceofsandiego.org/2025/08/18/e... @voiceofsandiego.org

California Energy Utilities Value Human Life Too Much, Regulators Believe The CPUC ordered utilities to put a dollar value on human life so it was clear how utilities made decisions about spending on expensive projects that prevent their equipment from sparking wildfires.  

How much is your “life worth” to your electric utility? SDG&E and PG&E had such a high value, state regulators told them to drop the price: voiceofsandiego.org/2025/08/14/u... @voiceofsandiego.org