“There it is. Take it”.

William Mulholland, mastermind behind the now 110 year old Los Angeles Aqueduct, spoke these words as water first surged down through the channel and began to make its way towards Southern California. Now over a century later, the region has heeded Mulholland’s order, demanding water at alarming rates and leaving a slew of ecological problems in its wake.

For decades, raw sewage from Tijuana, Mexico has, and continues, to flow across the border into San Diego, California.  This discharge flows into the Tijuana River Valley, and ultimately to the Pacific Ocean.  This pollution has negatively impacted the Tijuana River Valley and the Tijuana River Estuary, one of the last remaining estuaries in California, and the beaches.  Unhealthy concentrations of fecal indicator bacteria has forced the County of San Diego to close 10 miles of beach access from the US-Mexico Border all the way to the beaches of Coronado.

Southern California Cities are moving towards independence from imported water from faraway watersheds and the Bay Delta Estuary. Given the extremes of dry and wet weather with climate change, forward thinking Southern California cities are relying more on local water supplies including fully treating wastewater or sewage to the point that it is cleaner than what comes out of your faucet. These programs are called PURE Water and after extensive research and testing, state issued guidelines finally came out this year.

What is 30x30?

30x30 is the global movement to protect 30% of our planet’s land and water by 2030 as a stepping stone toward protecting at least half of the Earth by 2050. 30x30 aims to protect and restore biodiversity, expand access to nature, and mitigate and build resilience to climate change in order to ensure a liveable climate for all.

WeTap and the Sierra Club are the perfect ‘water partners.’ Collaboration and communication are the keys to healthy communities and a clean environment.

The mission of WeTap is to:

The Color of Water Initiative was created by the Water Hub to build voice and visibility for people of color in the water movement. Our goal is to connect reporters with a more diverse set of experts, and build capacity for these experts to elevate the stories of their communities, which have often been left out of conversations around water.

An overview of growing an edible garden with limited water.
Minimal Water, Maximum Food Production (at home or for the home gardener)

The United States Space Force recently released a Draft Environmental Assessment (EA) for a proposal by the Phantom Space Corporation for up to 48 launches a year, from Vandenberg Space Force Base (VSFB) in Santa Barbara County, of expendable rockets that will end up in the ocean offshore of Baja, in international waters.  The stated purpose is to provide greater mission capability to the Department of Defense, NASA, and commercial customers by constructing a new launch facility on VSFB and implementing Phantom Space Corporations’ Daytona-E and Laguna-E launch program.

Angeles Chapter’s Water Committee’s newer member Shirley Nixon, a former public interest environmental lawyer from WA state, ponders her continuing discoveries of differences between Washington & California’s approaches to water management.

With half of the world’s population experiencing water scarcity for at least a month a year,¹ we are teetering on the brink of a global crisis. Our freshwater sources are stretched thinner and thinner as our populations grow and climate change exacerbates droughts and floods. 60% of these water sources are shared between borders² but with only 16% of the countries that rely on them having cooperation agreements,³this pressure can snap quickly and transform water into a trigger for violence, a weapon, or a casualty.