An elderly woman watered her front yard in the scorching afternoon sun using a hose with no nozzle.
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The state water board announced Thursday that urban water users reduced consumption by 27.3 percent compared to June 2013 levels, amounting to 59.4 billion gallons of water saved.
The savings were even more remarkable coming as the state grappled with its hottest month ever in June. “If they’re off the mark during the summer, when the greatest volumes of water savings are possible, it’s going to be incredibly hard for them to make that up in the later months”. “We are in the drought of our lives”, Marcus said. “I know these numbers are low-balled, I think we’re actually saving more”.
From one street to the next, residents had different assumptions of how much water they could use.
Across the state, cities and communities must cut their water use by 8 to 36 percent, depending on their water use before Brown declared a drought emergency in 2014.
Two ways that Californians have managed to reduce water use is through peer pressure and penalties for water waste.
“I’ve never seen such immediate action happen”, said Stephanie Nevins, a water conservation supervisor at Alameda County Water District in the East Bay.
Blain stated most of the individuals she’s spoken with say they’ve forgotten about their timber or gotten frightened and commenced watering on the tree’s base.
Robyn Bullard, a spokeswoman for the city’s public utilities department, credited widespread messaging that included an e-mail blast to customers and television commercials.
In all, 265 water agencies serving more than 27 million people met or exceeded their conservation targets, according to Board data. Agencies that don’t meet targets face fines and state-ordered conservation measures such as a limit on how many days a week residents can water lawns.
Marcus expressed pride in Californians for letting their lawns go “California golden”, and for being “consciously conservative”.
Max Gomberg, a scientist with the water board, said the state reviews will assess the extent of water use restrictions, budgets for conservation programs, grass removal rebates, and the number of water waste inspectors.
In an average year, 20 to 50 percent of California’s precipitation comes from relatively few, but extreme events called atmospheric rivers that move from over the Pacific Ocean to the California coast.
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Meteorologists say a wet California winter is increasingly likely as a strong El Nino condition builds in the Pacific Ocean, although it’s unclear if it will be a drought-buster.
