When designing your WaterSmart Living landscape, you want your new outdoor space to fit your house, your neighborhood, and your lifestyle. Finding that fit begins by asking a few basic questions.
To state the obvious: California has a water problem. That’s why more than 6 million Southern Californians can water outside only once or twice a week as of June 1.
But experts say conservation alone can’t solve our water woes. So what does water security look like in a drier future? This story focuses on one piece of the puzzle: recycling wastewater. Let’s dig in.
Farmers in Imperial County feel like they’ve borne the “lion’s share” of cutbacks in use of water from the Colorado River as the megadrought gripping the West the last couple of decades continues to diminish that vital resource for the Southwest.
With elevations of the river’s reservoirs having now fallen to the point that significant additional cuts to the water supplied to the states that rely on the river are a grim likelihood next year, the Imperial Valley farmers are resigned to seeing further cuts in their water delivery. But they fear those cuts will adversely impact their farms, their lifestyle, their businesses and their communities.
“We are navigating across the American West with unprecedented drought, uncharted conditions.”
That was the dire warning from California Natural Resources Agency Secretary Wade Crowfoot during a news conference Thursday at the headquarters of the San Diego County Water Authority. He said federal water officials were worried too.
Beginning Friday, June 24, and running through Monday, June 27, Caltrans electronic signs across the state will display the message “Severe Drought. Limit Outdoor Watering.” The messaging raises awareness of the urgent need for Californians to save water as the state faces severe drought. Limiting outdoor watering is one of the best ways Californians can cut back on water use – outdoor watering accounts for up to 60% of the average Californians’ water use, according to the California Department of Water Resources.
Lake Mead’s water levels this week dropped to historic lows, bringing the nation’s largest reservoir less than 150 feet away from “dead pool” — when the reservoir is so low that water cannot flow downstream from the dam.
Lake Mead’s water level on Wednesday was measured at 1,044.03 feet, its lowest elevation since the lake was filled in the 1930s. If the reservoir dips below 895 feet — a possibility still years away — Lake Mead would reach dead pool, carrying enormous consequences for millions of people across Arizona, California, Nevada and parts of Mexico.
The largest water recycling plant in the world can be found in Fountain Valley, California, and work is underway to make it even bigger.
According to the Orange County Water District, its Groundwater Replenishment System takes about 110 million gallons of wastewater from the county’s sanitation district every day that would normally be dumped in the Pacific Ocean.
Beside a canal that runs through farmland, rushing water roared through an irrigation gate and flowed down a concrete culvert toward a wetland fringed with cottonwoods and willows.
For decades, so much water has been diverted to supply farms and cities that the Colorado River has seldom met the sea and much of its delta in Mexico has been reduced to a dry riverbed, with only small remnants of its once-vast wetlands surviving.
California is experiencing its third consecutive dry year, and while dry spells aren’t new, the current severe drought conditions call for an increase in water conservation efforts inside and outside of homes. Replacing the lawn with water smart plants is one way to take immediate water saving action and have a direct impact on the state’s ongoing drought.
With an extreme drought tightening its grip, drawing concerns about the future of water in Monterey County and throughout California, the county’s Board of Supervisors overturned a 33-year-old law to allow the private ownership and operation of desalination facilities within the county.
Previously, desalination facilities were limited to public ownership, a rule that was criticized as more of a political decision than anything else.
