Helix History (2000-xxxx)

2000
Helix Water District's network of pumps and control stations for the distribution of high-quality water is unaffected by Y2K, the worldwide worry over computer systems' ability to change properly to the new year. There was fear that computer operating systems would recognize the digits "00" as the year 1900 instead of 2000.

Helix 1B Pump Station wins a design award from the San Diego and Imperial Counties Chapter of the American Public Works Association. The honorable mention highlighted the pump station's ability to blend into the neighborhood at Spice Street and Bancroft Drive in La Mesa.
Engineering Design Associate Scott Hamren and Inspector Dave Williams at the award-winning Helix 1B Pump Station.

The District receives funding that triggers a requirement to fluoridate water supplies. Fluoridation is scheduled to begin after completion of the expansion of the R.M. Levy Water Treatment Plant in Lakeside. The $46-million project includes the addition of an ozonation facility.

Joel Scalzitti wins election to the board in Division 1, replacing John Linden who was appointed in 1999 to complete the term of retired Director Lillian Childs.

At the same time

San Diego becomes the first area in the country to experience the effects of deregulation of the power industry. Prices rise from 10 cents-per-kilowatt-hour in June to 25 cents-per-kilowatt-hour in December. The rollercoaster ride continued as state legislators looked for answers.

An international consortium of genetic researchers--collectively called the Human Genome Project--announce a scientific breakthrough: they had completely mapped the genetic code of a human chromosome, raising a plethora of medical, legal, and ethical questions.

Baseball's New York Yankees become the first team to win three World Series championships in a row since the Oakland Athletics (1972-74).

Republican George W. Bush is finally declared the president-elect more than a month after Election Day, having lost the popular vote but having obtained the necessary number of electoral votes. A convoluted recount process in Florida ended when the U.S. Supreme Court, by a 5-4 majority, declared the recount constitutionally problematic, effectively handing the election to Bush late on December 12.

Hillary Rodham Clinton wins her bid for the U.S. Senate, becoming the first First Lady to be elected to public office. Mrs. Clinton relocated to New York to run for the Senate.

2001
Thieves impersonate water workers
According to local law enforcement officials, a trio of thieves seeking to gain entrance into area residences were impersonating water utility employees. In some instances, suspects gained entry into the home by convincing residents that there had been a water-main break in the area and that they had been sent to check the house's water system.

Water Conservation Garden honored for contribution to community The Associated General Contractors of California honored the Water Conservation Garden at Cuyamaca College in El Cajon with a 2001 Constructor Award for the garden’s contribution to the East County community. A joint project of Otay Water District, Helix Water District and Cuyamaca College, the Garden serves as an example of low-water-use landscaping for residents, students and business owners in this semi-arid region, which must import up to 90-percent of its water from the Colorado River Aqueduct and Northern California.

Five water districts join to standardize
Helix, Otay, Padre Dam, Lakeside and Riverview water districts created standard specifications, an approved materials list and standard drawings and tucked them into a 750-page document for distribution to San Diego County utilities and contractors. The five-agency-standardization means contractors doing business with different districts need only to master one plan of operation, and design engineers will find specifications to be the same across district boundaries.

Last pipe ready to end 25-year project
Board directors, company owners, management and staff spray-painted signatures onto the final pipe and provided a ceremonious end to the concrete, gravity pipeline replacement initiated in 1976. The new pipeline offers many important benefits, including increased capacity of the system to better meet the current and future demands of the region. Relocation of the pipeline into public streets greatly enhances accessibility and reduces maintenance-related costs. The original wooden flume, built in the late 1800s to transport water from Lake Cuyamaca to San Diego, was replaced in the 1930s with a concrete, gravity-flow pipeline.

'Mr. Water,' Harry Griffen dies
Often known as "Mr. Water," Harry C. Griffen was a force in the water industry of California for half a century. Just nine days short of his 94th birthday, Griffen died at the San Diego Hospice on Thursday, July 12, from complications following a stroke. Griffen served on Helix Water District's board of directors from 1951 to 1978. He was president for the last 19 years of his time on the board. Under his direction, the District upgraded old facilities and built new ones to meet the growing demands of a burgeoning East County population.

California's second woman water board director, Mabel P. Bryan, dies at 92
Mabel P. Bryan, the second woman to serve as director on a water board in California, and the first in San Diego County and Helix Water District, died at the age of 92. She had been in poor health following a stroke four years earlier. Elected as director of Division 1 in 1959, Bryan served on Helix's board for 20 years, holding positions as secretary and vice president. She chose not to seek a sixth term of office and retired in 1979.

Helix appoints new general manager
Directors on the board of Helix Water District named Chief Engineer and Director of Engineering Mark Weston to replace retiring General Manager Don Kuhl. Kuhl had been with the District for 30 years, nearly three as GM. The switch became effective Aug. 17. Weston, 51, of Poway, has focused his career in water, wastewater and municipal engineering. He has worked for the State of California; State of Montana; City of Helena, Montana; County of San Diego; and City of Poway. Weston has been involved with the San Diego water community since 1987 and joined the Helix team in July of 1998.

At the same time

Following in his father's footsteps, George W. Bush was inaugurated as the nation's 43rd president on a gloomy, bone-chilling Saturday and sketched a bright vision of a unified country.

A senior FBI agent who worked as a counterintelligence supervisor at the agency's headquarters was charged as a spy who passed highly classified information to Russia for 15 years without being detected. Robert Philip Hanssen, 56, was accused of turning over to Moscow a huge array of secrets, including the identities of three Russian agents who had been secretly recruited to spy for the United States. Two of the Russians were subsequently tried and executed, the third was imprisoned and later released.

Elevators ground to a halt and lights winked out in Beverly Hills, Silicon Valley and other communities up and down California as rolling blackouts for the first time swept across the entire state. In one of the worst days in the state's power crisis, a series of outages began about noon and continued into the evening. Power was cut to more than 1-million customers.

A U.S. Navy surveillance plane collided with a Chinese fighter jet sent to intercept it over the South China Sea on Sunday and made an emergency landing in China. The Chinese government said the fighter crashed and its pilot was missing. China blamed the U.S. aircraft for the collision off the southern Chinese island of Hainan. But the commander of US Pacific military forces said the Chinese planes were at fault, sharply criticizing China for "aggressive" tactics in intercepting U.S. planes.

In a horrific sequence of destruction, terrorists flew two jetliners into the World Trade Center as tens of thousands of people were reporting to work in lower Manhattan. The twin 110-story towers burned and collapsed. A third plane struck the Pentagon and a fourth crashed in the Pennsylvania countryside as passengers wrestled with terrorists for control of the aircraft. The events spread fear across the nation.

2002

Former GM Clarence Watters dies
Clarence Watters, a former general manager at Helix Water District, died Jan. 11 at his home after suffering a heart attack. He was 77. Watters worked for the District from 1950 to 1980. The last five years of his career, he served the District as general manager. He also represented the District on the San Diego County Water Authority board. Watters worked for the District during its period of rapid growth. In 1950, the district served 46,000 people, in 1980, 205,000 people, almost a 450-percent increase in the District.

'Helix Water Watchers' focus an eye on security
Terrorist events have forced many citizens, businesses and government agencies to take additional security measures to protect their homes, buildings and facilities—and Helix Water District was no different. With the help of local residents, the District began a community-based notification system called “Helix Water Watchers,” in which anyone witnessing anything suspicious near storage tanks, pumping stations or pipelines is encouraged to contact the District through a 24-hour telephone number.

Water treatment plant upgrade and expansion complete; San Diego County’s first ozonation facility provides better tasting water San Diego County’s first ozonation water treatment facility began cleaning drinking water for local residents. The facility was completed as part of a $48-million upgrade and expansion of Helix Water District’s R.M. Levy Water Treatment Plant in Lakeside. The Michael D. Espiritu Ozonation Facility was named in honor of the district’s former water quality and treatment manager who died Jan. 15, 2001, at the age of 44. Espiritu spent years working on the expansion and upgrade project and was very enthusiastic about the addition of the ozonation process. The ozonation facility allows Helix to switch from chloramines to ozone as the major water disinfectant at the plant and will enable the district to more easily meet anticipated changes in water quality regulations from the Environmental Protection Agency.

Helix breaks ground for raw-water pipe
Groundbreaking ceremonies for the Moreno-Lakeside Pipeline took place at Helix Water District's R.M. Levy Water Treatment Plant in Lakeside. Construction of the pipeline is expected to be finished by August 2004. The Moreno-Lakeside Pipeline will be a 54-inch pipe from Vigilante Road to the northern bank of the San Diego River where a 60-inch pipe will then take the water to the R.M. Levy Water Treatment Plant.

At the same time

Enron executive calls it quits
Kenneth Lay resigned as chief executive and chairman of Enron, the beleaguered energy trading company that filed for bankruptcy in Dec. 2001. It was the largest such claim in U.S. history, resulting in the loss of about 5,000 jobs and leaving thousands of people financially ruined. Enron's downfall uncovered a flurry of scandals, including questionable accounting practices by Enron to hide losses and massive document-shredding by both Enron and its auditor, Arthur Andersen.

In President George W. Bush's state of the union speech, he identifies Iraq, along with Iran and North Korea, as an "axis of evil." He vows that the U.S. "will not permit the world's most dangerous regimes to threaten us with the world's most destructive weapons."

American fights against U.S. as member of Taliban army
John Walker Lindh, 20, American Taliban soldier, reached a deal with U.S. prosecutors in July in which he avoided a life sentence by pleading guilty to serving in the Taliban's army. In exchange, the government dropped the charge that he conspired to kill U.S. citizens. Lindh was taken into custody in Nov. 2001, after a Taliban uprising at a prison compound in Mazar-e-Sharif. The U.S.'s first casualty, CIA officer Johnny Mike Spann, was killed during the revolt. Born in California's Marin County, Lindh traveled to Yemen and Pakistan to study Islam and Arabic, joined the Taliban, and trained at al-Qaeda terrorist camps in Afghanistan.

D.C.-area snipers arrested at highway rest stop
Police arrest two sniper suspects, John Allen Muhammad and John Lee Malvo. Ten people were murdered over a month-long killing spree in the D.C. area; three other people were seriously wounded. The two suspects were arrested while sleeping at a rest stop in their car, which was called a "killing machine," with a sniper's nest in the trunk and a .223-caliber Bushmaster rifle that ballistics tests have confirmed were used in eleven of the fourteen shootings. The car, a dark blue 1990 Chevrolet Caprice, was outfitted with a scope, tripod, "sniper platform," and two holes in the truck for the rifle and the scope.

2003

Australians visit in search of conservation knowledge
Victoria, Australia, Premier Steve Bracks stopped at Helix Water District to tour the R.M. Levy Water Treatment Plant. Bracks was traveling through the United States looking for conseravtion methods to benefit his home state and country. He said he was interested to know about recycling, desalination and agriculture-urban water transfers. Bracks went on to tour the Water Conservation Garden in El Cajon

District selected as finalist for Clair A. Hill Water Agency Award
The Association of California Water Agencies board selected the District as a finalist, among five agencies, for its project "Technology plus Education equals Innovation." The project narrative outlined the R.M. Levy Water Treatment Plant upgrade and education program.

Helix gets grant from Met
Metropolitan Water District of Southern California provided Helix with a grant of $10,000 to create a children's science lab at the R.M. Levy Water Treatment Plant. The grant was awarded to Helix through the San Diego County Water Authority's Community Partnering Program.

Water photo contest launched
The District began its annual high school photo contest.

Fires devastate the region
Fires devoured more than 250,000 acres of watershed in the Cleveland National Forest while killing 15 persons, burning more than 2,200 homes and doing more than $400 million in damage, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported. District employess answered the call by reporting to the R.M. Levy Water Treatment Plant to fend off the blaze with garden hoses.

Before the fire, the watershed was under severe drought. Afterward, there was significant erosion from the burned hillsides. Procedures among government and firefighting agencies were changed following the fires to allow quicker calls to the military for aerial assistance. Local authorities also bought firefighting helicopters to engage the next crisis.

Cast-iron replacement project going strong
The District accelerated its program to replace cast-iron pipes that were installed in the 1940s and 1950s. Installation methods and soil corrosion earned the project additional attention.

District helps host folk festival at the Water Conservation Garden
The Water Conservation Garden's first folk music festival was held in the facility's amphitheater under the summer sun and several musicians emerged as winners in the two-round competition.

Two Dan Bad took first-place honors and a model 110 guitar provided by Taylor Guitars. Fourteen-year-old Derek Duplessie nabbed second place and $500 donated by Poseidon Resources, while Jody captured third place and a banjo donated by Helix Water District Board President Harold Ball.

The Water Conservation Garden is a joint venture of Helix and Otay Water districts, Cuyamaca College, the San Diego County Water Authority, the City of San Diego, and Padre Dam Municipal Water District.

At the same time

Space shuttle explodes on return home
February 1, the space shuttle Columbia disintegrated as it tried to reenter the Earth's atmosphere after a sixteen-day mission in space. All seven members of the crew were lost. The mission was focused on a broad range of science experiments. The remarkable crew comprised six Americans, one Israeli; three seasoned astronauts, four on their first space flight; an African-American and the first Indian-American astronaut, scientists, surgeons, a fighter pilot.

War in Iraq timeline:

Jan. 28: In his State of the Union address, President Bush announces that he is ready to attack Iraq even without a UN mandate.

March 20: The war against Iraq begins 5:30 a.m. Baghdad time (9:30 p.m. EST, March 19), when the U.S. launches Operation Iraqi Freedom.

March 30: U.S. Marines and Army troops launch first attack on Iraq's Republican Guard, about 65 miles outside Baghdad.

April 2: Special operations forces rescue Pfc. Jessica Lynch from a hospital in Nasiriya. She was one of 12 soldiers captured by Iraqi troops on March 23.

April 9: Baghdad falls to U.S. forces. Looters pillage government buildings, museums, hospitals, and stores. Statue of Saddam Hussein symbolically toppled.

April 13: Marines rescue five U.S. soldiers captured by Iraqi troops on March 23 in Nasiriya, and two pilots shot down on March 24 near Karbala.

May 1: President Bush declares an end to major combat operations.

July 22: Saddam Hussein's sons, Uday and Qusay Hussein, die in firefight in a Mosul palace.

Dec. 13: Saddam Hussein is captured by U.S. troops. He is found hiding in a hole near his hometown of Tikrit and surrenders without a fight.

Affirmative Action survives challenge
In one of the most important rulings on the issue of affirmative action in 25 years, the U.S. Supreme Court decisively upheld the use of affirmative action in higher education. The Supreme Court (5–4) upheld the University of Michigan Law School's policy, ruling that race can be one of many factors considered by colleges when selecting their students because it furthers "a compelling interest in obtaining the educational benefits that flow from a diverse student body." TheCourt, however, ruled (6–3) that the more formulaic approach of the University of Michigan's undergraduate admissions program, which uses a point system that rates students and awards additional points to minorities, had to be modified.

Weapons of mass destruction program abandoned in Libya
Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi announced he will give up weapons program. Qaddafi made a "historic" decision to scrap his country's programs to develop weapons of mass destruction and to allow international inspectors to verify and oversee the process. U.S. and British governments said that Libya had been close to developing a nuclear device.

2004

Drought cripples west
Western U.S. suffered its sixth consecutive year of drought, possibly the worst period of water shortagre in 500 years, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Reservoirs were down; the Colorado River was running low, and wildfires destroyed thousands of brittle acres in California, including San Diego County.

Helix answers call to create conservation playing cards
District staff responded when the Water Conservation Garden board of directors decided to commission the creation of a deck of playing cards depicting low water-use plants in the Garden. District staff photographed appropriate blooms, designed the look of the cards and arranged printing of 13,500 decks. The in-house work saved the Garden up to $25,000.

Several San Diego water agencies and the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California purchased decks for conservation promotion campaigns. Grabbing 10,000 decks, Metropolitan planned to give the cards away to guests on their educational tours of the Colorado River water distribution network.

The Water Conservation Garden is a 501(c) 3 not-for-profit corporation focusing on education, and supported by contributions and earned income. The board of directors comprises representatives of six member agencies: Helix Water District, Otay Water District, Cuyamaca College, San Diego County Water Authority, City of San Diego and Padre Dam Municipal Water District.

Helix board votes to fluoridate water
Helix Water District board of directors authorized General Manager Mark Weston to execute a Fluoridation Funding Agreement between the District and the California Dental Association Foundation. The board also authorized forwarding of a letter to CDAF outlining the District's reservations about specific sections within the agreement. The board's correspondence noted:

1. Construction of the facility will include significant work performed directly by District forces at a significant savings to CDAF for which the District expects reimbursement;

2. The District is still waiting for a letter from the State Health Department identifying the approved chemical form of fluoride to be added to the water; and

3. The District clearly states that entering into the agreement with CDAF in no way obligates ratepayers to pay for future operations and maintenance costs of fluoridation.

	Smith		Muse

Helix board welcomes new members
Richard Kent Smith and Charles W. Muse will were sworn in as Helix Water District board members Dec. 8 during a ceremony at the District's Administration Office. Smith and Muse were successful candidates for office during the November general election and will serve for the next four years. Smith replaced director Barbara Barber in Division 5 and Muse replaced Director Warren Buckner in Division 3.

At the same time

POW abuse scandal haunts U.S. military
Worldwide outrage followed the release of photos in the American media depicting the physical abuse and sexual degradation of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison, which a U.S. military report described as acts of “purposeless sadism.” A July military report identified 94 more suspected or confirmed cases of abuse of prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan, including the deaths of at least 39 prisoners.

Budget deficit reaches record level
According to the Congressional Budget Office, the federal budget deficit reached a record $413 billion in 2004. The nonpartisan CBO also estimated that two-thirds of the 2004 deficit were the result of tax cuts. The Bush administration countered that the president's tax cuts had in fact kept the country's recession shallow and brief and were now stimulating the economy.

Marriage explored
Same-sex marriages became legal in Massachusetts after the state's supreme court ruled in Nov. 2003 that barring gays and lesbians from marrying violated the state constitution. A strong backlash around the country followed, with conservatives vowing to undo the work of “activist judges.” Although there was little support for a proposed federal consititutional amendment to ban gay marriage, all 11 state referendums banning gay marriage passed in November elections. Most states already had "Defense of Marriage" laws in place.

Slightest margin decides presidential election
The 2004 presidential campaign between President Bush and Democratic senator John Kerry was one of the most closely followed and contentious races in recent history. Terrorism, the war in Iraq, tax cuts, health care, and the economy were the major issues.

Yasir Arafat dies
The Palestinian leader for more than four decades largely had been viewed in recent years by the international community as an impediment to Palestinian-Israeli negotiations, and the prospect of new Palestinian leadership was viewed by some as a fresh opportunity for the peace process.