California’s water situation is dire, local officials warned this week.
While December brought a decent amount of rain and record-setting snowfall, the subsequent three months were bone dry, causing water suppliers to move beyond their current shortage contingency plans to take more ambitious measures.
Locally, Calleguas Municipal Water District, which provides water to purveyors serving the east end of Ventura County—including Camarillo, Moorpark, Simi Valley and Thousand Oaks—has declared a Stage 3 (six being the worst) shortage and is calling for all water users within its service area to reduce water use by 30%, though as of now, the reduction is not mandatory.
“We had December . . . but then we went into the driest three-month period on record,” said Dan Drugan, Calleguas’ manager of resources. “I think I can say this is the worst drought Calleguas has ever experienced since the importation of state water into the area, which first began in 1972.”
In mid-March, the state’s Department of Water Resources, which operates the State Water Project, from which Callegaus and other agencies, such as Las Virgenes Municipal Water District, depend heavily upon for water, announced water vendors should prepare for only 5% of a full supply for 2022.
Between the state and Calleguas, water passes through the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. MWD has indicated supplies of only 5% of its normal allocation will be insufficient to meet current demands for water in areas like Callegaus’ that are dependent on state water.
What this specifically means for the end customers isn’t clear yet, but it’s highly likely that mandatory cutbacks are coming, Drugan said.
Among proposals floated in a recent MWD committee meeting to be heard by the district’s board on April 26 is a mandate allowing for only one-day-a-week lawn watering through the end of the year.
On the local level, restrictions could look different from city to city or even water purveyor to purveyor, as some cities, like Thousand Oaks, have multiple purveyors.
Statewide, Gov. Gavin Newsom has called on the State Water Resources Control Board to evaluate regulations banning irrigation of “nonfunctional” turf or grass.
“Amid climate-driven extremes in weather, we must all continue to do our part and make water conservation a way of life,” Newsom said in a statement released after his March 27 executive order.
The water resources department estimates the ban will result in an overall water savings of several hundred thousand acre-feet, or enough water to serve about three households for a year.
Not included in the governor’s proposed ban are residential laws or grass used for recreation such as school yards, sports fields and parks.
As Calleguas and other water agencies wait to see what measures Metropolitan takes, it’s trying to raise awareness of the situation.
“I think what folks need to know now is we are going to see some mandatory actions soon,” Drugan said. “It’s going to come at us and it’s going to come quick.”
