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A comprehensive condition assessment of nine dams owned by the city of San Diego has been underway for the past year, according to the Public Utilities Department said. Asked about the condition of San Diego dams after Sunday’s mass evacuation in Oroville in Northern California, department officials told City News Service that they hired independent experts in dam design, construction and safety to perform detailed inspections of the dams in February of last year.

For the past five years, as the drought drained California’s water sources and depleted its reservoirs, Southern California water managers have relied increasingly on the region’s largest out-of-state water source: the Colorado River.

The river feeds the 242-mile Colorado River Aqueduct, which ends at Lake Mathews in Riverside County. The aqueduct is managed by the Metropolitan Water District of Los Angeles, a wholesaler that supplies 1.2 million acre-feet of Colorado River water to the Inland region and beyond.

Californians are doing an outstanding job conserving water, reducing urban water use by nearly 26 percent during the last seven months of 2015, compared with the same period in 2013, exceeding Gov. Jerry Brown’s 25 percent reduction mandate. California’s investor-owned water utilities, together serving approximately 6 million people, are partnering with their customers to achieve those savings. The State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) has recognized many of our members among the state’s water conservation standouts.

The severity of this historic drought has required extraordinary conservation measures to ensure adequate water supplies. As SWRCB Chair Felicia Marcus said last spring, “This is the drought of the century, with greater impact than anything our parents and grandparents experienced, and we have to act accordingly.” Given the uncertainties with the weather, the SWRCB made the prudent, responsible decision on Feb. 2 to extend the emergency conservation regulations (with appropriate adjustments for local climates, population growth and drought resilient supply investments) through October 2016.

At a Feb. 3 meeting of the Orange County Water District, members of the public questioned plans to build a new desalination plant along the coast. They noted San Diego County Water Authority officials were forced to dump treated water into a lake because of a contract they signed with Poseidon Resources to build a desalination plant in Carlsbad. In response, Scott Maloni, vice president of Poseidon, said, “Despite some comments you heard tonight about water not being used or not being needed, that is not the case.”