The Southern California Metropolitan Water District Council has declared a third state of emergency due to water shortages and is urging some cities and water services to implement the June 1 reduction and otherwise impose heavy fines. “We do not have enough water reserves at the moment to meet normal demand. “The water is not there,” said Rebecca Kimic, a spokeswoman for the area. “This is unprecedented territory. “We have never done anything like this before.” The Metropolitan Water District restrictions apply to areas of Los Angeles, Ventura, and San Bernardino counties that depend primarily on state water supply through the area, including certain parts of the city of Los Angeles. The affected areas are mostly urban. The goal of limiting water use for lawns, plants and things like car cleaning is to save water now for indoor use later in the summer, when water use is on the rise, said Adel Hagekhalil, general manager of the Metropolitan Water District. of Southern California. he said on Wednesday. The Metropolitan Water District uses water from the Colorado River and the State Water Project – a huge storage and delivery system – to power 26 public water utilities that supply water to 19 million people, or 40% of the state’s population. However, record drought conditions have strained the system, reducing reservoir levels, and the State Water Project – which draws its water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta – has estimated that it will only be able to provide About 5% of its normal distribution. for the second consecutive year. January, February and March of this year were the driest three months in the state’s recorded history of rainfall and snowfall, Kimitch said. The Metropolitan Water District said the water years 2020 and 2021 had the least rainfall recorded for two consecutive years. In addition, Lake Oroville, the main reservoir of the State Water Project, reached its lowest point last year since it paid off in the 1970s. California Gavin Newsom has urged citizens across the state to voluntarily reduce water consumption by 15%, but so far residents have been slow to achieve that goal. Several water areas have introduced water saving measures. On Tuesday, the board of East Bay Township in Northern California voted to reduce water use by 10 percent and limit daily use to about 1.4 million customers in Contra Costa and Alameda counties, including Oakland and Berkeley. Households will be allowed to use 1,646 gallons (6,231 liters) per day – well above the average home use of about 200 gallons (757 liters) per day – and the service expected only 1% to 2% of customers to exceed the limit , the San Francisco Chronicle reported. The Metropolitan Water District’s six customer service providers in areas affected by Tuesday’s board action must either limit their outdoor use one day a week or find other ways to make equivalent reductions in water demand. If local authorities fail to meet the reduction targets, fines of up to $ 2,000 per acre of water will be imposed, Metropolitan Water District CEO Deven Upadhyay said on Wednesday. One acre is about 325,850 gallons (about 1.23 million liters). It will be up to the local authorities to decide how to impose irrigation restrictions on their customers. Upadhyay noted that an exception allows hand-watered trees to retain “ecologically important tree canopies”. The Metropolitan Water District will monitor water use and if the restrictions do not work, it could order a total ban on outdoor watering in the affected areas in September. Meanwhile, state lawmakers have taken the first step toward lowering the standard for how much water people use in their homes. California’s current standard for indoor water use is 55 gallons (208 liters) per person per day. The rule does not apply directly to customers, which means that regulators do not report people using more water than allowed. Instead, the state requires water utilities to meet this standard to all its customers. However, the state Senate voted overwhelmingly last week to reduce the standard to 47 gallons (178 liters) per person per day from 2025 and to 42 gallons (159 liters) per person per day from 2030. The bill has not yet been passed in the Assembly, which means it is still probably months away from becoming law. The US West is in the midst of a severe drought just a few years after record rains and snowfall filled the reservoirs. Scientists say this cycle of prosperity and collapse is driven by climate change characterized by longer, more intense droughts. A study earlier this year found that the western United States was in the midst of a severe drought that is now the driest for at least 1,200 years. —- Associated Press author John Antczak contributed to this report.
