California beat its drought this year, but from that seven-year drought came a new device, engineered by a Cal Poly graduate. The sensor, called Flume, could be the next step in water conservation from your couch. Each American uses about 88 gallons of water at home each day, according to the EPA. That same report shows on average, a family spends $1,000 on water every year. “You literally just take [the device], put it on the side of the meter, run some water, and just like that you’re calibrated,” said Eric Adler, co-founder and CEO of Flume, Inc., while demonstrating the device.
Archive for date: June 17th, 2019
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Water is a complex problem on Earth: Some places get far too little of it and some get far too much. That’s why NASA and its international partners are tracking the flow of freshwater across the world in hopes of improving access to it for the billions of us who depend on it. Satellites study how water moves through its cycle. Sometimes it evaporates from warm oceans in the tropics, condenses into clouds and then falls back into the ground as snow or rain. The water might stay in a river or lake — or freeze, locked within ice or snow. It can either evaporate into the atmosphere or soak into the ground, moistening the soil or filling an aquifer.
Pollution in the oceans of the world is a major problem. It’s also a problem close to shore. But a relatively small invention called the Seabin is making a big difference in cleaning San Diego’s coastal waters. In San Diego on Friday, Seabin CEO and co-founder Pete Ceglinski showed KPBS how the device works at Cabrillo Isle Marina on Harbor Island. A container with a fiber lining catches debris and oil, which is sucked into the unit, similar to how a pool filter works. It filters the water and flushes clean water out the bottom. It’s emptied once or twice a day.
Combat climate change, or clean up California’s water? Those alarmed by the Legislature’s decision to dip into a greenhouse gas fund to pay for clean drinking water may need to get used to it: constitutional restrictions on spending that money are set to expire in 2021. At issue is the decision to address one environmental crisis—the lack of clean water for one million Californians—with money set aside for fighting another: climate change. It’s a move that pits those committed to curbing greenhouse gases against environmental allies over $1.4 billion dollars of polluters’ money, even as the state boasts a $20.6 billion surplus.
This early June morning is Boyd Shepler’s birthday, No. 66, and he is spending it in a classic California way: a few hours of skiing in a snowflake-filled morning, then a round of golf in the dry afternoon sun. The snow here in the Sierra Nevada is epic, packed into a base that is more than double the historic average for early summer. Here on Mammoth Mountain, the ski lifts will be running into August. At lower altitudes, a spring of atmospheric rivers and hard rain has filled the state’s once-languishing reservoirs.
The City of Lathrop has taken another step towards achieving the long-awaited goal of being able to discharge tertiary treated wastewater into the San Joaquin River. With the approval of the Lathrop City Council, the city is now in a contract with Ascent Environmental to initiate the environmental documentation necessary to acquire the permit to discharge of water from the city’s water treatment plant into the river – a move that could pay sweeping dividends to the city in the future.
India just increased tariffs on US exports, dealing another blow to fragile global trade. The tariffs on 28 US products, announced on Saturday by India’s Finance Ministry, went into effect Sunday. The goods targeted include American apples — which will be hit with a 70% tariff — as well as almonds, lentils and several chemical products. India first announced plans to impose new tariffs a year ago in retaliation for increased US import duties on Indian steel and aluminum. But it repeatedly delayed imposing them while the two sides held a series of trade talks.
The San Diego County Water Authority has partnered with San Diego singer and guitarist Jon Foreman of Switchfoot to create a series of videos highlighting the value of water to the region’s economy and quality of life. From sustaining world-famous tourist destinations to making world-class guitars, the San Diego lifestyle wouldn’t be possible without clean and reliable water supplies delivered by the Water Authority and its 24 member agencies. “It takes a huge investment from the San Diego County Water Authority and its member agencies to maintain the pipes that deliver water across our region,” Foreman says in one of the videos.
In 2006, when California adopted Assembly Bill 32 — the state’s landmark climate change law forcing a long-term shift to cleaner forms of energy — the measure initially faced concerns that it would increase the energy bills of poor households. Lawmakers responded to this concern by including language in the bill that said emission fees paid by polluters in the state cap-and-trade market set up by the measure would be used not just for projects that helped the environment but to limit the measure’s effects — including higher gas prices — on the poor.
Zephyr Partners last week floated the idea of a wave water park as part of a development proposed for the former Oceanside drive-in property, more than 90 acres along the San Luis Rey River just east of the city’s airport. The perfect machine-made wave would attract surfers from hundreds of miles away and would capitalize on the city’s beach-town reputation, said Michael Grehl, a senior vice president for Zephyr.