KTVU is continuing its week-long series of stories about the drought with a look at the dire situation at California’s largest reservoir.
Lake Shasta provides water not only to agriculture in the Central Valley, but also to several regional Bay Area water systems. Lake Shasta is located 10 miles from Redding, in Shasta County, and about 200 miles north of the Bay Area.
As of Spring 2022, National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS) data show nearly 70 percent of the lower 48 U.S. states in drought, affecting more than 100 million residents.
California in particular is facing a deepening water crisis, with over 93 percent of the state experiencing extreme drought. 2022 is the state’s driest year on record for the past 128 years, while 58 counties in the state are currently under a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) disaster designation.
As extreme drought grips the Southwest, businesses across California are taking a variety of water-saving actions. The San Diego County Water Authority and its 24 member agencies offer business rebates and other incentives to help businesses save money while saving water.
The San Diego Union-Tribune Editorial Board spoke with executives from the San Diego County Water Authority on Tuesday.
They discussed rate increases, what’s needed to secure California’s water future, and why we can’t conserve our way out of the drought.
Plus, they give tips on the one thing we should all be doing to improve our water situation.
New data suggest Californians are steadily reducing water usage in the face of severe drought, although cities and towns in the northern part of the state are cutting back more than those in the thirsty and more heavily populated south.
Water use in cities and towns across the state decreased 7.6% in June when compared with the same month in 2020 — significantly short of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s voluntary 15% goal last year, but a significant shift compared with the previous month, according to data released by the State Water Resources Control Board. In May, statewide savings were just 3.1%.
This month will be a moment of truth for Arizona cities.
The Federal Bureau of Reclamation is scheduled to release its “24-month study” that announces how much water Lake Powell and Lake Mead will release in 2023.
Meanwhile, seven western states must also present a plan to dramatically cut 2-4 million acre-feet of water. According to federal records, that amounts to as much as 25% of water allocated to the states.
After California’s record dry start to the year, efforts to conserve water have created a patchwork of rules for residents that sometimes vary by city or even by neighborhood.
Emergency regulations took effect statewide, prohibiting water waste and requiring water providers to address a 20% water shortage.
Meanwhile, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California imposed stricter rules for several communities in Ventura, Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties.
Residents and businesses in some Southern California cities could be forced to let their lawns go brown in September, as emergency pipeline repairs cut off water supplies from the vital Colorado River for two weeks.
With a record-setting drought limiting other options, Burbank sent notice Tuesday that no sprinklers or other automated irrigation will be allowed at homes or businesses from Sept. 6-20. The city is encouraging residents to put buckets in their showers and mulch in their flower beds to help keep plants alive during the ban.
When Jeanne Reutlinger moved to her Escondido home in 2019, the neglected front yard was full of weeds, baked by the sun, and car exhausts from the street. Three years later, Reutlinger’s vision and hard work for a natural low maintenance habitat created a pollinator’s paradise full of native plants. Her efforts won the 2022 City of Escondido’s Landscape Makeover Contest.
In case you missed the memo: Glossy green lawns fed by sprinklers arcing water into the sky just don’t work anymore in these days of lingering drought.
As the supply of water in reservoirs and wells continues to shrink around California, we need to change what and how we’re irrigating.
Public parks might arguably be good locations for large expanses of turf in Southern California’s low-rain climate, but around our houses?
