San Diego

Oceanside’s City Council asked staffers this week for a study of ways the city can lead its own project to get more sand out of its clogged harbor and onto its eroded beaches. The city is growing increasingly concerned over the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ failure to dredge the harbor this year, along with the federal agency’s inability to complete other projects that could beef up Oceanside’s beaches.

San Diego’s ocean waters are warmer than usual. Last week, researchers recorded the warmest sea surface temperature in more than a century. Each day, researchers from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at University of California San Diego collect data by hand from the Ellen Browning Scripps Memorial Pier.

Jennifer Bowles, executive director of the Water Education Foundation, will speak on a panel about the media during the 25th Annual Urban Water Institute’s conference in San Diego Aug 22-24. Bowles, a veteran journalist and executive editor of the Foundation’s Western Water news, will join other media representatives, including Ry Rivard of the Voice of San Diego, to discuss Working with the Media in Changing Times. Former Foundation Executive Director Rita Schmidt Sudman, author of Water More or Less, will moderate.

The sea surface temperature at the Scripps Pier in La Jolla hit 78.6 degrees on Wednesday, the highest reading in the pier’s 102-year history, according to UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography. The reading broke the previous record of 78.4 degrees, which was set in 1931.

From U-T San Diego:

When the San Vicente Dam opened in 1943, engineers were already thinking about how to make it higher — a vision celebrated Wednesday by many who came to dedicate a new version of the venerable structure that’s 117 feet taller than the original.

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From U-T San Diego:

It wasn’t a mirage. There was actually some very, very light rain in San Diego this afternoon.

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From U-T San Diego:

State lawmakers are deep into what hopefully are final negotiations for a major bond issue asking voters to provide billions for critical water projects throughout this drought-plagued state.

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From U-T San Diego:

“San Diego will spend $1 million during the next two years educating the public about the city’s plan to recycle treated sewage into drinking water. The money, which the City Council approved on Tuesday, will help San Diego move forward with plans to create a drought-proof water supply that would decrease reliance on expensive imported water.”

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From U-T San Diego:

“Every once in a while, strange odors drift over the waters of the Oceanside Harbor, prompting some boat owners to speculate that their neighbors may be illegally dumping sewage in the marina.”

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