Southern California faces major water restrictions as Western U.S. drought continues
This post was originally published on this site
California is once again facing major drought conditions, albeit with no areas experiencing exceptional droughts at least. Still, a large stretch in the middle of the state is considered to be in an extreme drought, which has officials with Southern California’s Metropolitan Water District (MWD) imposing stringent restrictions on water usage across six agencies, spanning dozens of communities. The water restrictions, which will take effect on June 1, primarily target outdoor watering, according to the Los Angeles Times, which reports that the activity accounts for as much as 70% of residential usage. Hand-watering trees is still on the table, though officials caution that residents “can’t afford green lawns” and should only be watering outdoors once a week.
The outdoor watering restrictions could be enough to meet the 35% reduction of usage needed to get through the drought and keep an all-out outdoor watering ban from being imposed in September. Approximately six million Southern Californians are expected to be affected, with officials hoping they stick to using 80 gallons of water per day—a decrease from the MWD average of 125 gallons of water per person per day. “We knew climate change would stress our water supplies and we’ve been preparing for it but we did not know it would happen this fast,” MWD Board of Directors Chairperson Gloria Gray told CBS News. A colleague of Gray’s called the drought “unprecedented,” though California has been experiencing some semblance of drought conditions since at least 2001, just one year after the U.S. Drought Monitor began.
Water districts in various parts of the state have been responding to the worsening drought, which has so far spanned three years, with January-March of this year bringing the driest conditions on record in California. In addition to residential restrictions for communities served by the Vallecitos Water District that encompasses inland San Diego County, commercial businesses face permanent restrictions like only serving water at restaurants if a customer specifically requests it or hotels giving guests the option of having their towels and linens laundered less frequently. More than 109,000 people rely on services from the Vallecitos Water District.
In Northern California, customers who rely on the East Bay Municipal Utility District will also face water restrictions—albeit less drastic than those in Southern California. The agency is asking its 1.4 million customers to reduce individual water usage by 10% from 2020 levels. The drought has crippled a majority of the West. According to the U.S. Drought Monitor’s map of the West, just over 6% of residents across New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, California, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, and Montana are not experiencing any drought conditions. There is major concern for the more than 55 million people experiencing drought conditions as well as what that could bring for wildfire season. Already, New Mexico has reported seven large fires since the start of the year, with Arizona reporting two. According to a World Economic Forum report in March, the present drought’s severity is undeniably linked to climate change. A study in Nature Climate Change even found that human activity contributed to 19% of the drought last year. Water restrictions may be tough, but if humans can make a difference in worsening the drought, they can hopefully move to lessen its intensity as well.