In June, state officials ended a mandatory conservation program that had been in place for a year. Absent the program, the state as a whole used 14 billion gallons more this June than June 2015, which was the first month of state-imposed conservation targets. Here in the hottest, most populous part of the state, we used about 2 billion more gallons. Of nearly 200 local agencies reporting, about 8 in 10 used more water.
Californians conserved less water in June, the first month after statewide mandates were eased and control over drought restrictions returned to local water agencies, officials said Tuesday.
The State Water Resources Control Board reported that Californians used 21.5 percent less water in June than they did in 2013, a drop of 6 percentage points from a year earlier and nearly 7 percentage points from May.
A dip in conservation was expected after the statewide mandate was eased, and conservation overall remained high, said Felicia Marcus, water board chairwoman.
Last summer, a revolution occurred in Los Angeles landscaping: Across the city, tens of thousands of homeowners tore up their water-thirsty lawns and replaced them with gravel, turf, decomposed granite and a wide range of drought-tolerant plants at a rate never seen before.
The water-saving benefits of this massive landscape overhaul are undisputed — and that’s important in a region that was facing the worst drought in 1,200 years. Still, some experts warned that Angelenos’ zeal to use less water in the backyard would ultimately make the city warmer.
Dave Edwards has hiked in the Santa Monica Mountains for decades, but the view has changed in the past few years. Hundreds, if not thousands, of trees have died, leaving hillsides with gray and brown patches. Five years of drought has shortchanged trees on water and nutrients. Trees dried out and insects moved in. “It’s not just in the Santa Monica Mountains. It’s all over the state,” said Edwards, a volunteer with the Santa Monica Mountains Trails Council. “I have never seen it like this.”
Water conservation in California dipped slightly during the first month that the state’s mandatory water-savings rules were significantly relaxed, regulators said Tuesday. The 21.5% cut in water use in June compared with the same month in 2013 was less impressive than some officials had hoped, but also came as a relief because the numbers suggest that urban Californians will continue to save water — even when they are not required to do so.
The multi-year drought has become so bad in some parts of California that last year wells dried up and communities had to have their water hauled in by truck. Even with that emergency lifeline, residents of places like East Porterville in Tulare County had to carefully parcel out their supplies for cooking and cleaning. Toilets were “flushed” by dumping used dishwater into the bowl. Showers became a luxury.
Recycled water will be available to San Diego water customers for free beginning Saturday in Scripps Ranch, according to city officials.
The city of San Diego’s public utilities department will offer the water from a fill station at 10137 Meanley Drive on Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. and on Tuesdays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. The water is available at no extra charge to city water customers who present valid billing documentation.
As wildfire rages in California, flooding affects millions in India and China, and eggs are fried on sidewalks in Iraq, scientists say global climate catastrophe is surpassing predictions. Southern California’s years-long drought has resulted in one of the “most extreme” wildfires the region has ever seen.
Record global heat in the first half of 2016 has caught climate scientists off-guard, reports Thompson Reuters Foundation. “What concerns me most is that we didn’t anticipate these temperature jumps,” David Carlson, director of the World Meteorological Organization’s (WMO) climate research program, told Thompson Reuters Foundation late Monday.
Scientists say a tiny endangered fish found in lagoons and streams along the California coast belongs to two separate species.
The tidewater goby, a 2-inch translucent fish, survives in relatively isolated populations from Del Norte County down to San Diego. The fish spend most of their lives in the same puddles, rarely traveling far from where they spawned.
Sweltering temperatures across California prompted calls for residents statewide to reduce their energy use through 9 p.m. Wednesday, officials said.
The so-called flex alert initiated by the California Independent System Operator, which manages the state’s electric grid for most of the state, was scheduled to run from 2 to 9 p.m. Utility companies urged their residential customers to voluntarily delay washing clothes and dishes until bedtime and to keep their thermostats at 78 degrees or higher.
