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MacKenzie Elmer, journalist.

@journomack.bsky.social

210 followers 63 following 89 posts

Climate, science and environment reporter at Voice of San Diego. Anthropocene gal. Scripps Institution of Oceanography grad. More journalism, less bullshit.

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MacKenzie Elmer, journalist. @journomack.bsky.social · Feb 12

Spent a year fighting the Feds in court to for these records. The result? Trump/Biden built a border wall through the Tijuana River that violates treaties with Mexico — and it could cause catastrophic flooding in both countries. No biggie. voiceofsandiego.org/2025/02/11/m... @voiceofsandiego.org

Mexico Said River Border Wall Broke Treaties. The US Built it Anyway.

Experts warn Customs and Border Protection’s wall through the Tijuana River will eventually cause catastrophic flooding in both nations. The IBWC was the only agency with the power to stop it.

voiceofsandiego.org

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MacKenzie Elmer, journalist. @journomack.bsky.social · 3d

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

MacKenzie Elmer, journalist. @journomack.bsky.social · 4d

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

MacKenzie Elmer, journalist. @journomack.bsky.social · 5d

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...

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…

voiceofsandiego.org

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MacKenzie Elmer, journalist. @journomack.bsky.social · 7d

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...

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,...

voiceofsandiego.org

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MacKenzie Elmer, journalist. @journomack.bsky.social · 7d

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.”

MacKenzie Elmer, journalist. @journomack.bsky.social · 9d

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

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MacKenzie Elmer, journalist. @journomack.bsky.social · 11d

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:

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...

www.kpbs.org

MacKenzie Elmer, journalist. @journomack.bsky.social · 13d

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...

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.

voiceofsandiego.org

Reposted by MacKenzie Elmer, journalist.

Water Hub @waterhub.bsky.social · 15d

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/...

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.

www.latimes.com

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MacKenzie Elmer, journalist. @journomack.bsky.social · 15d

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

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.

voiceofsandiego.org

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MacKenzie Elmer, journalist. @journomack.bsky.social · 16d

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

MacKenzie Elmer, journalist. @journomack.bsky.social · 21d

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

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.

voiceofsandiego.org

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MacKenzie Elmer, journalist. @journomack.bsky.social · 22d

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

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.

voiceofsandiego.org

MacKenzie Elmer, journalist. @journomack.bsky.social · 22d

Very intertwined.

Sammy Roth @sammyroth.bsky.social · 23d

Not just electricity that's getting too expensive in Southern California -- water bills are a growing problem too, @ianjames.bsky.social reports: www.latimes.com/environment/...

Water bills in L.A. County are rising faster than inflation, UCLA research shows

UCLA researchers found that in Los Angeles County, average household water bills climbed 60% from 2015 to 2025, rising faster than inflation.

www.latimes.com

MacKenzie Elmer, journalist. @journomack.bsky.social · 23d

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

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MacKenzie Elmer, journalist. @journomack.bsky.social · 28d

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...

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…

www.countynewscenter.com

MacKenzie Elmer, journalist. @journomack.bsky.social · 28d

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...

MacKenzie Elmer, journalist. @journomack.bsky.social · 28d

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

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…

www.drought.gov

MacKenzie Elmer, journalist. @journomack.bsky.social · 28d

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

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.

voiceofsandiego.org

MacKenzie Elmer, journalist. @journomack.bsky.social · 28d

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.

MacKenzie Elmer, journalist. @journomack.bsky.social · Aug 27

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.

voiceofsandiego.org

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MacKenzie Elmer, journalist. @journomack.bsky.social · Aug 27

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

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.

voiceofsandiego.org

MacKenzie Elmer, journalist. @journomack.bsky.social · Aug 26

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,"

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MacKenzie Elmer, journalist. @journomack.bsky.social · Aug 26

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

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.

voiceofsandiego.org

MacKenzie Elmer, journalist. @journomack.bsky.social · Aug 26

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