Water providers that have struggled in recent months to meet conservation targets could soon get some relief under the modified drought rules unveiled Friday by state regulators.
The proposed changes to California’s emergency drought regulation reward water districts for investing in new local supplies and allow for adjustments to savings goals based on a district’s climate and population growth.
A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge ruled Friday that the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California must release the names and addresses of recipients of millions of dollars in turf replacement rebates.
The L.A. Department of Water and Power sued MWD in late July to block the release of the data to the San Diego Union-Tribune, a sister newspaper of the Los Angeles Times. Three other agencies — West Basin Municipal Water District, Foothill Municipal Water District and Upper San Gabriel Valley Municipal Water District — later joined the DWP suit.
Winter rains finally hit water-starved southern California in January. The first bands of El Niño storms delivered around three inches to Los Angeles alone, and more is expected. But nearly all that water went straight into the Pacific Ocean. After four years of punishing drought, that may seem like a colossal waste, but the people who built this sprawling West Coast metropolis wanted it that way.
To understand, rewind to the early 20th century, when rain was seen as a threat to the city’s rapid economic development. A series of deadly floods hit the city, killing hundreds of people, destroying homes, railroad lines, bridges and roads. Woody Guthrie sang about one of those disasters in “The New Year’s Flood.”
El Niño-driven rainstorms can be captured for precious water resources, or they can create millions of dollars of damage to cities, businesses and homeowners. It just depends on timing.
When the first storms dumped several inches of rain on Southern California last week, water coursed off the driveways, parking lots and streets of Inland Empire cities like Riverside and San Bernardino and into a network of gutters, where it drained, eventually, into the Santa Ana River.
Residents and businesses in the San Diego region consumed 18 percent less water in December than the same month in 2013, below the state target of 20 percent for the area, the County Water Authority reported Wednesday.
Despite the decline in conservation, which continues a local and statewide trend, San Diegans have reduced usage 24 percent overall since June.
Residents and businesses in the San Diego region consumed 18 percent less water in December than the same month in 2013. But that was below the state target of 20 percent for the area, the County Water Authority reported Wednesday.
Despite the decline in conservation, which continues a local and statewide trend, San Diegans have reduced usage 24 percent overall since June.
Residents and businesses in the San Diego region consumed 18 percent less water in December than the same month in 2013, below the state target of 20 percent for the area, the County Water Authority reported Wednesday. Despite the decline in conservation, which continues a local and statewide trend, San Diegans have reduced usage 24 percent overall since June.
“Much less water is used outdoors in the wet winter months, and that makes it much harder to achieve significant water savings,” said Dana Friehauf, water resources manager for the Water Authority.
El Niño, have you abandoned us?
After a super stormy stretch last week, San Diego County has warmed up and dried out. And the forecast for the coming week calls for a few spritzes locally, but that’s about it.
Has El Niño, the periodic phenomenon that shifts the storm track and holds promise of drought relief for parched California, left us in the lurch?
This summer, as California was struggling through its most severe recent year of drought, two California members of Congress unveiled legislation meant to ease the pain.
Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Republican Rep. David Valadao introduced, separately and respectively, the California Emergency Drought Relief Act of 2015 and the Western Water and American Food Security Act of 2015. Though both are aimed primarily at their home state, the bills’ scope is West-wide.
A series of storms passing over Northern California are expected to drench residents in rain and dump up to 2 feet of snow on the northern Sierra Nevada, a precious water resource the state relies on in the spring, the National Weather Service said.
The storms are expected to bypass Southern California, according to the weather service.
Starting Tuesday night, the first of the storms is expected to reach from San Mateo to Sonoma before moving farther inland toward the Sierra Nevada. The region’s forests between the coast and the mountains could see up to eight inches of rain by Monday while the mountains could get 2 feet of snow, said Karl Swanberg, a forecaster with the National Weather Service’s Sacramento office.
