The deaths of an elderly couple who were fatally shot over the Memorial Day weekend at a home near Padre Dam Park have been ruled a murder-suicide, authorities reported Tuesday.

The San Diego County Sheriff’s Department said that deputies responding to a call in the 300 block of Lantern Crest Way in the Santee area at around 11:30 a.m. Sunday found the bodies of David Soulner, 82, and his wife Claire, 79.

Investigators concluded that David Soulner shot his spouse before turning the gun on himself, sheriff’s Lt. Michael Krugh said.

“The circumstances and motivation for this crime are still under investigation,” Krugh said Tuesday.

Anyone with information about the incident is asked to call the Homicide Unit at (858) 285-6330 or San Diego Crime Stoppers at (888) 580-8477.

City News Service contributed to this report.

A water main with reclaimed water broke Sunday morning on a Santee street, causing water to rise and flow into the lanes of a nearby mobile lodge.

Water came up along the curb line on both sides of the 10200 block of Prospect Avenue, according to OnScene.TV, following the break, at about 7:15 a.m.

Firefighters responded, as did Padre Dam water district employees, who worked to shut down the flow.

There were no reports of damage at the Town & Country Mobile Lodge, despite water running onto the property.

Authorities will decide if the road can be reopened before repairs take place.

The East County Advanced Water Purification Program broke ground Wednesday, marking an important milestone for the project, which could recycle up to 11.5 million gallons of water per day when it’s completed.

Program representatives, elected officials, and water industry leaders gathered Wednesday at the future site of the treatment facility in Santee.

The project was approved on May 19 by the East County AWP Joint Powers Authority, which owns and operates the program, and is a collaborative partnership between four agencies: Padre Dam, the city of El Cajon, the county of San Diego, and the Helix Water District.

The groundbreaking comes amid a record drought and joins similar projects in Oceanside and San Diego designed to end the region’s dependence on dwindling supplies of imported water.

The overall cost for the Santee project is $950 million and it is estimated to create 2,500 jobs in the region. The project is scheduled to be completed in 2026 and is touted as having the capability to meet around 30% of current drinking water demands for East San Diego County.

“We are now one step closer to creating a local, reliable, and sustainable drinking water source that will reduce our dependence on increasingly expensive imported water,” said Allen Carlisle, Padre Dam, and administrator of the joint powers authority.

“The East County Advanced Water Purification Program is a smart investment that provides a long-term solution for increased stability in our communities and safeguards the vitality of our economy and quality of life,” he said.

After the water purification process, the purified water will be blended with water in Lake Jennings and treated again at Helix Water District’s R.M. Levy Water Treatment Plant before being distributed as drinking water.

The program has secured more than $123 million in grant funding and $796 million in low-interest loans. Project leaders said they anticipate receiving additional state and federal grant funding.

City News Service contributed to this article.

The East County Advanced Water Purification program unveiled a 360-degree virtual reality tour video Monday, allowing viewers to virtually view the program’s facilities.

Viewers are greeted by the program’s “Big Deal” animated mascot. They are brought to a guided tour of water facilities, allowing people to look around by simply moving their computer mouse or phones to anywhere in the video. Locations include the Ray Stoyer Water Recycling Facility, the East County AWP Demonstration Facility and Lake Jennings.

Viewers with a virtual reality headset for cell phones can take the engagement one step further by “stepping into” the video. Program representatives will also begin scheduling opportunities for community groups, schools and scouts to view the video using program-provided virtual reality goggles starting this month.

“Bringing this fun, easy to understand and immersive tour to East County’s water and wastewater customers is an important and unique educational resource,” said Kyle Swanson, director of the East County AWP. “Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, we averaged more than 1,000 people annually touring our facility, many of whom were eager students wanting to learn about this important water resource.”

“This virtual tour helps to refill the learning need and will also be helpful while the East County AWP progresses towards the construction phase,” Swanson said.

Scheduled to be complete in 2025, the program is a partnership between four agencies: Padre Dam Municipal Water District, county of San Diego, city of El Cajon and the Helix Water District.

The program is intended to use four advanced water purification steps to produce water that is near-distilled in quality. After the advanced water purification process, the purified water will be blended with water in Lake Jennings and treated again at the R.M. Levy water treatment plant before being distributed as drinking water.

In addition to providing a new local water supply, the program is intended to eliminate the need to send most of East County’s wastewater to San Diego’s Point Loma Wastewater Treatment Plant, where it is currently treated and then discharged into the ocean.

To watch the 360-degree virtual reality video and learn more about the program, go to www.eastcountyawp.com/177/Videos.

City News Service contributed to this article.

The Padre Dam Municipal Water District announced Tuesday that its East County Advanced Water Purification project was selected to apply for nearly $350 million in federal funding.

The water purification project is expected to create a sustainable municipal water supply through purification of east San Diego County’s recycled water, according to district officials. The project is scheduled for completion in 2025 and could generate up to 11.5 million gallons of drinking water per day, roughly 30% of east county’s drinking water demand.

The technology and plan are similar to the City of San Diego’s giant Pure Water project, which is expected to begin construction later this year.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency selected the project to apply for $342 million in federal Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act funding. According to district officials, only 38 projects in 18 states were selected to apply for the funding, totaling roughly $6 billion to create nearly 200,000 jobs. The application project will take roughly one year before funding is dispersed.

“This recognition from the EPA further validates the need for this innovative and future-focused project that we and our agency partners have been diligently working to complete,” said district CEO and General Manager Allen Carlisle. “Funding sources like these will enable us to provide local, high- quality drinking water for our residents and businesses for generations to come.”

The project’s completion will nullify the need to send east county wastewater to the Point Loma Wastewater Treatment Plant, where it is currently treated and released into the ocean. Treated water will be blended with water from Lake Jennings and treated a second time at the R.M. Levy Water Treatment Plant before its use as potable water.

The district is expected to form a joint-powers authority with the city of El Cajon and San Diego County to oversee the project’s development and the reception of funding. The JPA is scheduled to meet for the first time Nov. 5.

— City News Service

A ruptured water main created a roadway sinkhole that snared an Uber car and left some nearby homes briefly without water service early Tuesday.

The flooding along Pecan Park Lane near Olde Highway 80 in Flinn Springs was reported about 4:45 a.m., said Padre Dam Municipal Water District spokeswoman Melissa McChesney.

Before authorities were able to close the street, an Uber driver tried to traverse the submerged section, winding up getting his vehicle stuck in the hole dug in the pavement by the overflow. He and his passenger were able to get out of the car safely.

The failure of the 16-inch-diameter PVC line left eight homes without water service for several hours, McChesney said.

Repair crews had the broken pipe fixed as of mid-afternoon and expected to get the road patched and reopened by early evening, according to McChesney.

— City News Service

San Diego water officials cheered the region’s water-saving efforts Thursday but chafed at statewide restrictions that don’t take into account local investments in desalination, recycling and storage capacity.

“There really is this disconnect between what local agencies have done to make themselves drought-proof and what the state has done with the mandate,” said Dana Friehauf, water resources manager for the San Diego County Water Authority.

Friehauf said that since May the agency has stored 42,000 acre feet of water — enough to serve nearly 100,000 homes — in the recently enlarged San Vicente Dam because local supplies now exceed demand.

“This drought is a legislatively-mandated drought,” said Mike McSweeney, senior public policy advisor for the Building Industry Association of San Diego. He said San Diego has adequate supplies because “we planned ahead and put in infrastructure.”

Friehaus and McSweeney spoke at a “Drought Town Hall” organized by Assemblyman Brian Jones, who represents most of East County and parts of Temecula. The event in El Cajon drew 150 people.

Jones said San Diego needs relief from drought restrictions because of local investments such as the new Carlsbad Desalination Project and expansion of the San Vicente Dam.

“Unfortunately, Sacramento has not been as proactive as San Diego County,” Jones said, noting that money from the recently approved state water bond is only slowly being spent because of environmental challenges.

He said his position, and that of the Republicans in the General Assembly, is that California needs to invest in rebuilding the state’s aging water infrasturcture.

The town hall came on the same day that the water authority reported a 32 percent decline in water use last month compared to July 2013. That was much more than the state-mandated cutback of 20 percent countywide.

“The residents and buisnesses have really stepped it up and done their part to conserve,” Friehauf noted.

Allen Carlisle, general manager of the Padre Dam Municipal Water District, said that his customers have cut average water use from around 150 gallons a day in 2002 to just over 100 gallons today.

“The bottom line is that we’re at the end of the pipeline here in San Diego. We need to continue to develop local supplies,” he said.

He said an important source will be recycled waste water, noting that currently 12.5 million gallons of waste water from East County are dumped into the Pacific Ocean daily. Padre Dam and the Helix Water District are working on a joint project to recycle this water.