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Pipeline 01 - Winter 2024
T H E O T AY W ATER DISTRICT • P R OUDLY SERVING E A ST C OUNT Y AND TH E S OUTH B A Y SINC E 1956 A NE W SLETTE R FOR CUSTOMERS OF T HE O TAY WATER DISTRICT WINTER 2024 Dedicated to Community Service FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE OTAY WATER DISTRICT CALL (619) 670-2222 OR GO TO OTAYWATER.GOV The Pipeline Newsletter is published quartely by the Otay Water District and can also be found online at otaywater.gov. Copywright ©2021 Otay Water District. All rights reserved. New Water-Use Efficiency Regulations to Provide Framework for Otay In 2024, the State Water Resources Control Board is expected to finalize regulations aimed at shaping California’s future water conservation standards. The overall goal is to make water conservation a way of life and a permanent part of the state’s culture amidst recurring drought cycles. In August 2023, the State Board released a draft regulation that establishes individualized water-use efficiency goals for each urban retail water supplier like the Otay Water District. As part of the State’s strategy to expand storage, develop new water supplies, and promote more efficient water use, the regulation seeks to promote long- term practices that help communities adapt to California’s ongoing water challenges. The proposed regulation is aimed at decreasing the need for emergency water-use reduction targets that have been critical in recent droughts. While details for implementing the new regulation are still being sorted out, customers will not see immediate changes. The regulation sets a framework for water providers to establish new, permanent water use targets including: an indoor standard of 47 gallons per person per day starting in 2025, reduced to 42 gallons in 2030; an outdoor standard for residential and commercial customers tailored to our local climate and landscaped area, adjusting over time; and a standard for water loss from leaks in the water system. While individual customers are not mandated to meet specific water-use targets, the District and other water suppliers, will be tasked with meeting an overall target calculated from combined standards. Achieving these targets will rely on residents and businesses in our community implementing water-saving measures. After setting targets, the District will strategize ways to meet them, possibly through efficiency rebates, infrastructure upgrades, and outdoor watering guidelines. Meanwhile, the District will continue offering rebates and services to promote wise water usage, including our annual Landscape Contest, conservation resources, and educational workshops. In California, droughts are a part of life, and the next dry year is always around the corner. The District is committed to partnering with its customers to implement these new regulations and promote water efficiency year-round. For details on rebates, programs, and classes, visit otaywater.gov/ conservation. Don’t Clog with FOG! How to Dispose of Fats, Oils, and Grease Did you know fats, oils, and grease (FOG) are just as bad for our sewer pipes as they are for our arteries and waistlines? FOG poured down a drain can harden and stick to the inside of the sewer pipe. Over time, it builds up and blocks the entire pipe, causing a sewer backup and overflow that is harmful to the home and our environment. As a public agency that owns and operates a wastewater collection system providing public sewer service to homes and businesses within the Jamacha drainage basin, the Otay Water District reminds customers that when using cooking oils throughout the year, avoid pouring them down any drains or toilets. Common sources of FOG are meat fats, dairy products, cooking oils, food scraps, dressings, sauces, lard, butter margarine, marinades, shortening, baked goods, gravies, and sandwich spreads. To dispose of FOG, pour the liquid (after it cools) into an empty container, cover it with a tight-fitting lid, and store it in the refrigerator. Once you have filled the container, discard it in the garbage can or recycle it at your local household hazardous waste collection facility. Wipe excess FOG from pans with a dry paper towel and discard it in the garbage can. Do not try to use hot water and soap to wash FOG down the drain. It will eventually cool and harden in the sewer pipes. For more information, visit otaywater.gov/FOG. Metas del uso del agua de la agencia = ++Estándar para uso residencial en interiores Estándar para uso residencial en exteriores Estándar de pérdida de aguaEstándar para jardines comerciales, industriales e institucionales + Water Agency Water Use Objectives = ++Indoor Residential Use Standard Outdoor Residential Use Standard Water Loss StandardCommercial, Industrial, andInstitutional Landscape Standard + Student Art Calendar 2024_111423-Final.indd 1 11/14/23 10:21 AM Register for classes and events at thegarden.org or call (619) 660-0614 x16 Get Your Free 2024 Student Art Calendar Let the artwork in the 2024 Student Art Calendar inspire you to make every drop count this year. August features winners from Otay’s service area. Pick up a free copy at our front desk at 2554 Sweetwater Springs Blvd., Spring Valley, CA 91978, while supplies last. Interested in Water Careers? Attend the Women in Water Symposium High school students, industry professionals, and those exploring water careers are invited to attend the 7th Annual Women in Water Symposium on March 21, 2024, at Cuyamaca College. The event is designed for attendees to develop new skills and connect with industry colleagues. For details, visit bit.ly/ women-in-water. Rebate Spotlight: Weather-Based Irrigation Controller Residential and commercial rebates of $35- $130 for weather- based irrigation controllers (WBIC) are available. A WBIC allows you to customize your landscape’s watering schedule and automatically adjusts the schedule for weather changes. Other benefits include: • Saving water! Only use the water your landscape needs based on the types of plants, weather, and time of year. • Saving money! Customizing your water schedule with a WBIC can save money on your water bill over its lifetime. • Saving time! Let the WBIC do the work for you. You will only have to check your irrigation system at least twice a year for any adjustments needed. Visit otaywater.gov/conservation-programs. Nan Sterman is a garden expert, author, designer, and educator. Nan leads international garden tours, is the author of several books, and hosts the show A Growing Passion on KPBS TV, waterwisegardener.com Nan StermanWaterwise Gardener Plant Your Spring Blooming Wildflower Seeds Now When you think of the word “wildflower,” you probably think of bright orange California poppies (Eschscholzia californica) whose bloom starts in early spring and lasts until summer. According to legend, when Spanish explorers sailed along the coast, they saw these bright orange poppies blooming on the hillsides and mistook them for fire. The California poppy is just one of the flowering native annuals, perennials, and bulbs. All support the native butterflies, caterpillars, bees, birds – including hummingbirds – and so on. Fortunately, this is the perfect time to plant flowering annual wildflowers from seeds. Here are some of the easiest to grow: The elegant clarkia (Clarkia unguiculata) is an annual that makes tall spires (2 to 4 feet tall) covered in hot pink flowers in mid to late spring. These woodland natives tolerate part sun, especially in hot inland valleys. They tolerate clay soils and host hummingbirds. The Foothill Poppy (Eschscholzia caespitosa) is a yellow blooming annual poppy that looks similar to the California poppy but makes a smaller mound of frilly blue-silver leaves. Its many short flower stalks are topped with a quarter-sized, butter yellow, cup-shaped poppy flower in spring. Plant in full or part sun. It is a favorite of birds and butterflies. Desert Canterbury bells (Phacelia campanularia var campanularia) add a spot of bright, deep blue to the spring wildflower garden. This desert annual grows in clay soil and forms mounds only a foot or two high. Plant in full sun. They are very drought tolerant and support hummingbirds. Perennial Showy Milkweed (Asclepias speciosa) is part of the habitat for monarch and striated queen butterflies. It makes tall stems (2 to 4 feet tall) lined with muted green leaves. In the summer, each stem is topped with a ball of dusky pink flowers that butterflies cannot resist. Showy milkweed prefers clay soil, full or part sun, and goes dormant in the winter. How to plant and grow wildflowers Growing annual wildflowers is fairly easy and are best planted now from seeds. • Choose a sunny spot for your seedbed. • Weed the area first, but don’t turn the soil over to avoid bringing more weed seeds to the surface. Those weeds will sprout and be difficult to tell from the wildflower seed sprouts. • These plants are native. There is no need to incorporate fertilizer or soil amendments into the soil. • Mix a packet of seeds into a cup or two of coarse construction sand or dried coffee grounds. Most of these seeds are tiny, so if you scatter them directly, they will bunch up in one area of the seedbed. The sand dilutes the seeds and helps distribute them widely over the seed bed. You can also make a custom seed mix by combining different kinds of seed packets into the sand or coffee grounds. • If it hasn’t rained recently, deep water the seedbed so the water saturates the soil. • Sprinkle the seed mixture over the seedbed, then cover very thinly with soil. Try not to step on the seedbed after the seeds are planted. Seeds can stick to your shoes. • After you plant the seeds, keep the seedbed damp by misting it with a very fine spray head any time the soil starts to dry out – or if it hasn’t rained. • Once seeds germinate, keep the soil damp until each sprout has several sets of leaves. These plants are all drought tolerant, so if you’ve been watering, stop once the plants reach full size. After that, an occasional irrigation can extend their bloom. Avoid overhead spray irrigation since wet leaves and flowers are vulnerable to fungi and other issues that kill plants. Once the plants are done blooming, leave them in place until their seeds ripen and are released – that way, you’ll have wildflowers again next year. After the plants finish reseeding, pull them out and put them in your compost pile or green-waste bin. Find wildflowers or wildflower seeds in the wild? Leave them be. It is illegal to pick wildflowers or to collect any kind of plant seeds in national parks, state parks, or any kind of refuge. Do not pick on private land either. Here’s why: future generations of wildflowers come from this year’s seed. Seeds come from flowers, so if you pick the flowers or seeds, you could wipe out the plants – and the flowers – for future generations! You may be just one person, but others have the same impulse that ultimately leads to extinction – which none of us want to happen. FOLLOW OTAY WATER ON... / SIGA AL DISTRITO DE AGUA DE OTAY EN... OTAY WATER DISTRICT – Board of Directors The Board of Directors meets the first Wednesday of the month at 3:30 p.m. in the board meeting room at 2554 Sweetwater Springs Boulevard, Spring Valley, CA 91978. The public is encouraged to attend or watch the live stream at otaywater.gov. PresidentJose Lopez, Division 4jlopez@otaywater.gov Vice PresidentRyan Keyes, Division 2rkeyes@otaywater.gov TreasurerMark Robak, Division 5mrobak@otaywater.gov Board MemberTim Smith, Division 1tsmith@otaywater.gov Board MemberGary Croucher, Division 3gcroucher@otaywater.gov FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE OTAY WATER DISTRICT CALL (619) 670-2222 OR GO TO OTAYWATER.GOV The Pipeline Newsletter is published quartely by the Otay Water District and can also be found online at otaywater.gov. Copywright ©2021 Otay Water District. All rights reserved. Nuevas regulaciones sobre eficiencia en el uso del agua proporcionarán un marco al Distrito Se espera que en 2024 la Junta Estatal de Control de Recursos Hídricos finalice las regulaciones para dar forma a los estándares futuros de conservación del agua de California. El objetivo general es hacer de la conservación del agua una forma de vida y una parte permanente de la cultura del estado en medio de los ciclos recurrentes de sequía. En agosto de 2023, la junta estatal publicó una propuesta de regulación que establece objetivos individuales de eficiencia en el uso del agua para cada proveedor minorista de agua en zonas urbanas como el Distrito de Agua de Otay. Como parte de la estrategia del estado para incrementar el almacenamiento, desarrollar nuevos suministros y promover un uso más eficiente del agua, la regulación busca promover prácticas a largo plazo que ayuden a las comunidades a adaptarse a los continuos desafíos hídricos de California. La regulación propuesta tiene como objetivo la disminución de la necesidad de objetivos de emergencia en cuanto a la reducción del uso del agua que han sido críticos durante las sequías recientes. Si bien se están terminando los detalles para implementar la nueva regulación, los clientes no verán cambios inmediatos. La regulación establece un marco para que los proveedores de agua establezcan nuevos objetivos permanentes de uso del agua, que incluyen: un estándar en interiores de 47 galones por persona al día a partir de 2025, que se reduciría a 42 galones en 2030; un estándar para exteriores para clientes residenciales y comerciales adaptado a nuestro clima local y áreas de jardines que se ajustaría con el tiempo; y una norma para la pérdida de agua por fugas en el sistema de agua. Aunque los clientes individuales no están obligados a cumplir con objetivos específicos de uso del agua, el Distrito y otros proveedores de agua tendrán la tarea de cumplir un objetivo general calculado a partir de estándares combinados. El logro de estos objetivos dependerá de que los residentes y las empresas de nuestra comunidad implementen medidas de ahorro de agua. Después de establecer los objetivos, el Distrito diseñará estrategias específicas para alcanzarlos, posiblemente a través de reembolsos por eficiencia, mejoras de infraestructura y lineamientos para riego en exteriores. Mientras tanto, el Distrito continuará ofreciendo reembolsos y servicios para promover el uso eficiente del agua, incluido nuestro Concurso de Transformación de Jardines anual, recursos de conservación y talleres educativos. Las sequías son parte de la vida en California y el próximo año seco está a la vuelta de la esquina. El Distrito se compromete a trabajar con sus clientes para implementar estas nuevas regulaciones y promover la eficiencia del uso de agua durante todo el año. Para obtener información sobre los reembolsos, programas y clases, por favor visite otaywater.gov/conservacion. ¡No obstruya las tuberías con grasas y aceites! Aprenda cómo desecharlas correctamente ¿Sabía usted que las grasas y los aceites (FOG, por sus siglas en inglés) son tan perjudiciales para las tuberías de alcantarillado como para nuestras arterias y nuestro cuerpo? Las FOG que se vierten en el desagüe puede endurecerse y adherirse al interior de la tubería de alcantarillado. Con el tiempo, se acumulan y bloquean toda la tubería, provocando desbordamientos del alcantarillado que son perjudiciales para el hogar y nuestro medio ambiente. Como agencia pública que posee y opera un sistema de recolección de aguas residuales que brinda servicio público de alcantarillado a hogares y negocios dentro de la cuenca de drenaje de Jamacha, el Distrito de Agua de Otay recuerda a los clientes que cuando usen aceites de cocina durante todo el año, no los viertan en los desagües o inodoros. Las fuentes comunes de FOG son las grasas de animales, los productos lácteos, los aceites de cocina, los restos de comida, los aderezos, las salsas, la manteca de cerdo, la mantequilla o margarina, los adobos, la manteca vegetal, los productos horneados y las cremas para sándwiches. Para desechar las grases y aceites, vierta el líquido (después de que se enfríe) en un recipiente vacío, cúbralo con una tapa hermética y guárdelo en el refrigerador. Una vez que haya llenado el recipiente, colóquelo en la basura o recíclelo en un establecimiento de recolección de residuos domésticos peligrosos. Limpie el exceso de grasas y aceites de ollas o sartenes con una toalla de papel seca y colóquela en la basura. No utilice agua caliente y jabón al momento de tirar la grasa por el desagüe. Para más información, por favor visite otaywater.gov/es/FOG. Metas del uso del agua de la agencia = ++Estándar para uso residencial en interiores Estándar para uso residencial en exteriores Estándar de pérdida de aguaEstándar para jardines comerciales, industriales e institucionales + Water Agency Water Use Objectives =++Indoor Residential Use Standard Outdoor Residential Use Standard Water Loss StandardCommercial,Industrial, andInstitutional Landscape Standard +