The lawns at the California Capitol are no longer being watered as water conservation was taken up a notch.
Emergency water conservation regulations were enacted by the California State Water Resources Control Board, and they went into effect on June 10. The regulations prohibit ornamental or non-functional grass at commercial, industrial and institutional properties from being watered.
Man-made climate change is not the source of California’s water woes.
I guarantee that some people will read those 11 words and dismiss anyone who utters them as a climate change denier or at least a member of the Flat Earth Society.
But the science and history are absolutely clear that when it comes to our water supply we are basing our solutions on the wrong facts.
A month after water restrictions were placed on communities in the San Gabriel and Inland valleys, many are meeting required conservation goals.
Customers in the Three Valleys Municipal Water District are using 36% below the maximum amount of water currently allotted, according to the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. The latest figure, which reflects data for the month of June, surpasses the 20% reduction residents were asked to meet beginning June 1.
As of Monday, Castaic Lake held only 34 percent of its total water capacity, and state officials expect to see that number dwindle even further as the long hot summer continues, according to information from the California Department of Water Resources.
“SCV Water and the rest of California is facing a serious multi-year drought, and there is no end in sight,” said Santa Clarita Valley Water Sustainability Manager Matt Dickens in an April statement. “Our current water-saving efforts are falling short of our conservation goals.”
In front of the Granite Reef Senior Center in Scottsdale, there’s a parking lot on one side, and off to the other side, there’s a space for the Scottsdale Trolley to stop. Between those areas is a patch of gravel and drought-tolerant desert plants. Six months ago, the senior center’s little xeriscape garden was about 3,000 square feet of turf. But it wasn’t intended as a sports field or a picnic area, it was really just a decorative space to divide two sides of the parking lot.
As the state’s water supplies continue to dwindle during this drought, it’s always worth weighing the pros and cons of desalinization to meet the state’s water needs
Groundwater keeps shrinking, reservoirs keep drying. Is it time for California to use desalinization to increase its depleted water supplies?
Here we are again: California is enduring another punishing drought, this one only a few years after the last one ended, which was the most severe drought in the state’s nearly 500 years of recorded history.
The San Diego City Council unanimously approved the city’s second water rate hike in two years on Tuesday.
In May, the San Diego County Water Authority proposed increasing its rates by about 5% for treated water and nearly 4% for untreated water, citing inflation, increased energy costs and rate hikes set by the Southern California Metropolitan Water District.
Water conservation numbers are strong in the capital region, but is it enough to satisfy statewide water restrictions?
We’re getting answers on how local counties are making conservation worth it for the people who live there.
As California’s drought worsens, local water agencies have been given level two regulations with the intention of cutting water usage by twenty percent. Residents are answering the call but it still may not be enough as Gov. Gavin Newsom mulls the idea of a statewide mandate.
The Southwest’s ongoing drought has put the spotlight on water conservation. Experts agree it’s an important part of the solution. But what does conservation mean to the average Arizonan? Shorter showers? No more grass lawns?
What really matters might surprise you.
Let’s say you’re standing at the kitchen sink with an empty peanut butter jar. You want to put it in the recycling bin, but you’re going to rinse it out first. Is it worth the water?
Even here, in the scorching summer heat of Altadena, Seriina Covarrubias’ front yard feels cool and inviting under the dappled shade of a magnificent elm tree.
“I thought it was going to take longer for a natural habitat to materialize,” Covarrubias says of her two-year-old garden, which is filled with fragrant coastal scrub.
