Over the last few weeks storms have torn through many of California’s communities, prompting evacuations in areas like Planada and Merced due to widespread flooding.
California is experiencing its third consecutive dry year, and while dry spells aren’t new, the current severe drought conditions call for an increase in water conservation efforts inside and outside of homes. Replacing the lawn with water smart plants is one way to take immediate water saving action and have a direct impact on the state’s ongoing drought.
Our city didn’t just become one of the most water efficient cities in the world overnight. We pulled together, and have achieved so much … but we have further to go if we want our children and grandchildren to be able to turn on the tap with confidence.
California’s Save Our Water program encourages everyone to continue water saving habits as residents work together to end the drought. Water conservation efforts are ongoing and critical to saving the state’s water supply.
Board declares shortage level one; calls for voluntary reduction in water use
Metropolitan Water District warned that consumers and business still need to do their share to conserve.
The drought has taken a toll on many communities, including disadvantaged communities, and the pain may just be starting. Recent reports in the Los Angeles Times and San Diego Union Tribune indicate new water rate hikes across the state. While every Californian has felt the effects of the five-year-old drought in their everyday living, with higher food prices, increased water rates and strict state demands for water conservation backed with fines. Those water problems may worsen when our state’s population reaches 43 million by 2030 but still relies on a water storage system built in the 1960s to serve just
Los Angeles Department of Water and Power customers cut their water use by 21.8 percent in September, compared to the same month two years ago, exceeding the conservation mandate set for the agency by the state, according to figures in a recently released report. The city of Beverly Hills, however, fell well short of its mandated goal, and is facing a hefty fine. Statewide, residents cut their water use by 26.1 percent in September, compared to the baseline year of 2013. That bested Gov. Jerry Brown’s call for an overall 25 percent drop in statewide water use. Individual cities and
In an effort to help restaurants and food service facilities save water during the drought, West Basin Municipal Water District (West Basin) is expanding the Cash for Kitchens Program, one of its many free water conservation programs for businesses in its service area. This free program is available throughout the cities of Culver City, Malibu, West Hollywood, some unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County and South Bay cities. The Cash for Kitchens Program provides tools to reduce overhead costs, such as free water efficiency devices, educational materials, and information about available rebates that will help employees become more water efficient.
Every time rain falls from the sky in Los Angeles, the city captures a little. In a year, the city manages to get ahold of 27,000 acre-feet of water on average, more than enough to provide over 50,000 households with water. But after four years of severe statewide drought, the LA Department of Water and Power (LADWP) is considering an enormous rainwater capture plan that could possibly yield between 100,000 and 200,000 more acre-feet of water a year by 2035
The fine reflects the rising severity of California’s four-year drought
Summer is officially here and Angelenos, as well as Californians in general, will have to face it with less water than in previous years. Less water, specifically due to new regulations laid out by Governor Jerry Brown earlier this spring but also, less water due to actual less water.
Recently, the State Water Resources Control Board shared its blueprint for supplying safe drinking water to all state residents with the delivery of the Safe Drinking Water Plan for California to the State Legislature. The Safe Drinking Water Plan for California focuses on how the State Water Board proposes to improve access to reliable and healthy drinking water for communities throughout the state. The report focuses on the nearly 8,000 public water systems that are under the purview of the Division of Drinking Water. This report does not address private wells and facilities that are not public water systems. At