Water-hogging customers in the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power service area will see higher bills this year.
Effective Jan. 1, LADWP began charging its heaviest water users as much as $3.60 more for every 748 gallons they take from their taps. Water bills for customers who use lower amounts will stay roughly the same as last year.
The San Diego County Water Authority and the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California have reached an agreement that will provide water to parts of Southern California facing extraordinary supply constraints due to cutbacks on the State Water Project.
Under a deal approved today by Metropolitan’s Board of Directors and previously authorized by the San Diego County Water Authority’s Board of Directors, Metropolitan will secure additional groundwater in 2022 from the Semitropic Water Bank in Kern County.
The San Diego County Water Authority and the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California have reached an agreement that will provide water to parts of Southern California facing extraordinary supply constraints due to cutbacks on the State Water Project.
Under a deal approved today by Metropolitan’s Board of Directors and previously authorized by the San Diego County Water Authority’s Board of Directors, Metropolitan will secure additional groundwater in 2022 from the Semitropic Water Bank in Kern County. Metropolitan can use that water to serve areas in the northwest and northeast parts of its service area that aren’t connected to its Colorado River supplies and are heavily reliant on limited State Water Project supplies.
“Metropolitan is committed to doing everything we can to bring more water to communities in our service area that are particularly challenged by the drought. We’re thrilled to have the Water Authority partner with us in this effort, supporting the well-being of all Southern California,” said Metropolitan board chairwoman Gloria D. Gray. “We’re all in this together. And we all need to do our part, including using water as efficiently as possible.”
Water Authority Board Chair Gary Croucher expressed a similar perspective. “We thank Metropolitan Board Chair Gloria Gray and General Manager Adel Hagekhalil for partnering with us in a way that benefits all of Southern California,” Croucher said. “We expect that this will be the first of many innovative and collaborative solutions with Metropolitan to sustain our collective economy and quality of life.”
Under terms of the agreement, Metropolitan will purchase 4,200 acre-feet of the Water Authority’s reserves in the Semitropic Original Water Bank in 2022 for $893 per acre foot. Metropolitan also will lease an additional 5,000 acre-feet of “take capacity” from the Water Authority’s water bank account.
Take capacity – a function of groundwater pumping and distribution system size – gives Metropolitan the ability to withdraw more of its own groundwater stored in the Semitropic Water Bank. An acre-foot is 326,000 gallons, enough to serve about three typical Southern California homes for a year.
In 2008, the Water Authority secured supplies in the Semitropic Water Bank for the San Diego region in preparation for drought. Due to other supply and storage investments and sustained water conservation in San Diego County, the Water Authority does not need to tap its Semitropic account to meet the region’s projected water demands in 2022, providing an opportunity to make that water available to other parts of the state.
Water years 2020 and 2021 were the driest two-year sequence on record in California. And in August, Lake Oroville – the main reservoir on the State Water Project – reached its lowest point since being filled in the 1970s. Earlier this month, the state announced that if hydrologic conditions don’t improve, State Water Project deliveries next year would be limited to only what is required to ensure the health and safety of residents, and no water would be delivered under the normal allocation system. Access to the Semitropic Water Bank is important because it is strategically located along the California Aqueduct and can supplement the limited state project deliveries.
Much of Southern California can rely on a diverse portfolio of Colorado River water, local supplies and stored reserves, when state project supplies are limited. However, parts of Metropolitan’s service area – including communities in Northern L.A. County, Ventura County and San Bernardino County – cannot receive Colorado River water and are more dependent on state project supplies. Metropolitan has taken important steps to modify its delivery infrastructure to shrink this dependent area.
The agency also continues to promote increased water efficiency across Southern California. Metropolitan’s board declared a Water Supply Alert in August and a Drought Emergency in November, both calling for increased conservation. The board also approved a series of measures to expand rebate and water-efficiency programs. Depending on local conditions, some Metropolitan member agencies have implemented mandatory conservation measures.
California farmers who struggled to make it through record-breaking drought and heat in 2021 are bracing for another bad year, this time without any additional water from the state.
The state said it won’t give any water from the State Water Project to farmers unless drought conditions improve. That could mean even higher food prices at a time when consumers are struggling with an ongoing pandemic and inflation across the board.
The grim news about the climate emergency just keeps rolling in. San Diego International Airport saw its driest November since 1980, with only a trace of rain recorded the entire month. Meanwhile, on Wednesday, the state Department of Water Resources said that California agencies that provide water to 27 million residents and 750,000 acres of farmland will get 0 percent of requested water from the reservoirs, canals and dams that comprise the State Water Project. Seven agencies will get some water, but only for urgent health and safety needs, including indoor sanitation and fire suppression.
The San Diego County Water Authority — which made the courageous and game-changing decision in 1991 to diversify its supplies and no longer rely so heavily on the giant, mercurial Metropolitan Water District of Southern California — won’t be affected by the state decision. In a normal year, officials said Thursday, 10 percent of the authority’s water comes from the State Water Project. But this year, it’s received none and still has plenty of water available.
A collaborative of local water districts, Las Virgenes Municipal Water District, Triunfo Water & Sanitation District and Calleguas Municipal Water District, are urging significant water use reductions by their customers after the California Department of Water Resources announced a 0% initial allocation from the State Water Project for the upcoming year.
California water agencies that serve 27 million residents and 750,000 acres of farmland won’t get any of the water they’ve requested from the state heading into 2022 other than what’s needed for critical health and safety, state officials announced Wednesday.
It’s the earliest date the Department of Water Resources has issued a 0% water allocation, a milestone that reflects the dire conditions in California as drought continues to grip the nation’s most populous state and reservoirs sit at historically low levels. State water officials said mandatory water restrictions could be coming.
“If conditions continue to be this dry, we will see mandatory cutbacks,” Karla Nemeth, director of DWR, told reporters.
With the drought showing no signs of abating, California officials announced Wednesday they plan to deliver almost no water from the State Water Project to begin next year — and suggested that mandatory cutbacks in urban usage could come if conditions stay dry.
Karla Nemeth, director of the Department of Water Resources, said the various cities and farm-irrigation districts that belong to the State Water Project — the elaborate state-run network of reservoirs and canals — are getting “essentially a zero allocation” to start 2022.
Storing water in reservoirs is important for maintaining freshwater ecosystem health and protecting native species. Stored water also is essential for adapting to the changing climate, especially warming and drought intensification. Yet, reservoir operators often treat environmental objectives as a constraint, rather than as a priority akin to water deliveries for cities and farms. Reservoir management becomes especially challenging during severe droughts when surface water supplies are scarce, and urban and agricultural demands conflict with water supplies needed to maintain healthy waterways and wetlands. In times of drought, most freshwater ecosystems suffer.
A California power plant likely will shut down for the first time ever because of low water during a prolonged drought, squeezing the state’s very tight electricity supplies, state officials said yesterday.
The Edward Hyatt power plant, an underground facility next to Oroville Dam in Butte County, is expected to close in August or September, said John Yarbrough, California Department of Water Resources assistant deputy director of the State Water Project.
