Southern California water rationing may be on the way

Doing some winter planting? Looks like drought-tolerant varieties should be at the top of your list.

An official of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California said Wednesday that there is a 50% chance the agency will ration deliveries to local water districts this summer. "We are now at a 1 out of 2 probability of needing to allocate water in Southern California," said Roger Patterson, Metropolitan's assistant general manager. If that occurs, it would be the first time since the state drought of the early 1990s.

A number of factors are drawing down the region's water reserves. If this winter turns out to be another dry one, water managers who have been urging conservation will start taking more forceful steps. Patterson said a decision of whether to allocate supplies will likely be made in April.

Environmental protections have cut pumping from the Sacramento-San Joaquin delta, a source of about 30% of the Southland's water. The state has gone through two consecutive years of below-average precipitation and may be headed for a third. And a long-term drought in the Colorado River basin has eliminated surplus deliveries to Southern California.

-- Bettina Boxall and Jordan Rau

Photo: Water reserves in Diamond Valley Lake, a large regional reservoir in Riverside County, are down. Credit: Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times

 

 

Comments

[MICHAEL]

Oh please!

We've got all the water in the world at our "doorstep"!

It's time to "get off the dime" and start building cogeneration nuclear power plants that not only generate electricitiy but desalinate ocean water.

CA would not only become energy & water self-sufficient but capable of irrigating the entire desert so we could feed the world!

And before I go back to the Laker game, DRILL HERE! DRILL NOW!

Hey, Arnold, give us a balanced budget!

[Christine B]

Desalination isn't as bad an idea as nuclear power plants, especially in California where we have this thing called "earthquakes" that tears highways to pieces, but the pollution caused by dumping the byproduct of desalination -- superheated, ultra-salty water -- back into the ocean is not the answer. Of course, this poster's "drill here, drill now" is a good clue he thinks we can continue to sully our environment with impunity. We live in a *desert* latitude and we need to start living that way. Furthermore, the wasteful practices of CA farmers, specifically flood irrigation, must change. We can no longer afford to live with our heads in the sand: we are not the masters of nature and had better begin to adapt our wasteful ways or Mother Nature will take her planet back from us.

[KingSlav]

Charge upstream agricultural users (aka farmers) market rates for water and there will be no shortage for residential users. Like always, shortages occur when government intervenes in the free market.

And while government gets out of the way, the courts would do wonders by telling idiotic, lawyer-happy "environmentalists" to find somewhere else to fall in love with a useless smelt.

[David in Los Angeles]

Most apartment buildings (and many condos) here in Los Angeles has one single meter for the entire 8-10 unit building. Step one would be retrofitting buildings with individuals water meters. There is no incentive to conserve.

[LB]

I get the Manifest Destiny mentality, I really do. But we need to grow up. We live in a dry climate. Let's start acting like it. If you need a big grassy lawn, the rest of the country would love to have you. There are smarter ways to irrigate our crops. All of us can do simple things around our homes - yeah, looking at you, neighbor, who washes your sidewalk twice a week - that are not remotely painful. Is personal responsibility dead?

[Vonda Doyle]

if the smelt die, so do the salmon.
Water contractors have a lot to gain by selling water.
look for the greed, find the water.
look for the water, find the governator.

[Cyber-Rain]

Unfortunately, water rationing may indeed be on the horizon, in light of the warmer year and a seeming paucity of water. Luckily, water districts like the MWD have been actively encouraging consumers to find everyday ways to limit water usage, including by Xeriscape, which is the planting of species that do not require extra irrigation. Xeriscape also encourages the use of native, or drought-resistant varieties of plants. Cyber-Rain has been working with consumers and water districts to help to limit water waste from sprinklers. We're all in this together!

[Joel Despain]

I do not live in Southern California, but rather in the central part of the state, and I for one have ZERO sympathy for Southern Californians. What a dumb place to build a giant city. You guys live a desert -- start acting like it! Get rid of the golf courses, pools and landscaping. Live within your means! The rest of the state and nation have paid out billions for water projects to ship water hundred and thousands of miles for you people. Where is the gratitude? Instead it is all just give me more, give me more. It is time to turn off the pumps and make you folks live with what you really have.

[steve williams]

Kill your Lawn. Replace it with a CA native garden. 50-70% of avg So.CA household water goes to thirsty lawns and gardens. We live in a desert! Accept, know and respect your habitat.

[James]

Joel Despam,

You can either bring the water to where the people are, or bring the people to the water. Which will you have?

I don't really understand why Los Angeles became the megacity of California when most of the water is hundreds of miles north, but it did. Also, virtually all of our population growth in recent decades has been driven by immigration. If you don't approve of the amount of water we use down here, then why don't you advocate enforcing the immigration laws, and everyone learning to live without a steady influx of cheap laborers.

[somebodies mom]

Come on LA I was back down there five ir si years ago, and yes the lawns and banks of Ivy being watered was incredulous, even more so was the water running down the street from the watering, the subdivision with the water problem because the people on the upper streets watered all night I mean really people English Ivy(?) and the bigger fountain thing? In the meantime the water is being wasted by the evil farmer? cut them off-what do you expect to eat? English Ivy, the saddest thing I saw was the hundreds of dead orchards in the Owens Valley from the water requestions of the 40's the dead valley that was once LA's fruit basket. Well you can import your food from countries that have no environmental regulations and have produced the worst pollution cloud ever seen-regulate farmers before pools and lawns? you are scary, and I am seeing holocausts of starvation in your words for the rest of us cactus growers