LOS ANGELES (Washington Insider Magazine) – Due to the state’s ongoing drought, Southern California’s massive water provider took the extraordinary step Tuesday of mandating almost 6 million customers to limit their outdoor irrigation to one day per week.
The council of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California announced a water scarcity emergency on June 1 and ordered the towns and water companies it serves to enact and enforce the reduction by that date, or face stiff fines.
According to ABC NEWS, the Metropolitan Water District takes water from the State Water Project and the Colorado River to feed 26 public water districts that serve 19 million individuals, or 40% of the state’s population.
However, record dry weather has put a strain on the infrastructure, decreasing reservoir supplies, and the State Water Program, which receives its water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, estimates that it would only be able to give approximately 5% of its typical allotment this year.
According to Metropolitan Water District spokeswoman Rebecca Kimitch, the months of January, February, and March of the current year were the driest 3 months in state history in regards to snowfall and rainfall.
According to the Metropolitan Water District, the water years 2020 and 2021 saw the least rain on record for 2 years in a row. Furthermore, the largest reservoir of the State Water Project, Lake Oroville, hit its lowest level last year since it was filled in the 1970s.
California Governor Gavin Newsom has requested households to cut their water usage by 15% on a voluntary basis, but locals have been hesitant to comply.
Water conservation techniques have been implemented by a number of water districts. The East Bay Municipal Utility District’s board of directors decided on Tuesday to cut water consumption by 10% and set a daily restriction for 1.4 million users in Alameda and Contra Costa counties, covering Berkeley and Oakland. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, households would be permitted to consume 1,646 gallons per day, significantly beyond the normal home consumption of approximately 200 gallons per day. The government expects about 1% to 2% of consumers to surpass the limit.
Los Angeles, San Bernardino, and Ventura counties, as well as various sections of Los Angeles city, are subject to the Metropolitan Water District’s regulations. Urban areas are primarily affected.
Client water departments of the MWD must either apply the one-day-a-week outdoor usage limit or find alternative measures to reduce water consumption, according to Kimitch.
Although the water authorities endorse the water conservation initiative, Kimitch believes it will be up to the public to take action.
The Metropolitan Water District will analyze water consumption, and if the limits aren’t effective, she added, the district might order an outright ban on outdoor irrigation as early as September.
Meanwhile, state legislators have undertaken the initial step toward decreasing the water usage guideline in households.
The current California indoor water consumption requirement is 55 gallons per individual per day. Consumers are exempt from the rule, which means that officials do not issue penalties to consumers who use more water than they really are permitted. Instead, the state mandates that water companies fulfill that requirement for all of their customers.
However, the state Senate voted unanimously last week to cut the benchmark to 47 gallons per person per day in 2025 and 42 gallons per person a day in 2030.
The measure has so far not passed the Assembly, therefore it will most likely take months to become law.
Only a few years following record snowfall and rain flooded reservoirs to capacity, the United States’ West is experiencing a catastrophic drought. Climate change, according to scientists, is driving this boom-and-bust cycle, which will be characterized by longer, more catastrophic droughts. According to a study published earlier this year, the United States’ West is in the midst of a megadrought that is the driest in at least 1,200 years.
