Los Angeles Department of Water and Power customers cut their water use by 13.7 percent in January, compared to the same month in 2013, below the 16 percent conservation mandate set by the state, according to figures released Thursday. “We need a lot more wet weather this winter to take the edge off (the) drought”. “Using water carefully and sparingly is still the quickest, most effective way to stretch supplies”.
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The communities of Livermore, Pleasanton, Dublin and San Ramon get more than two-thirds of their supplies from the state and because of sparse deliveries in past years, they’ve rolled out some of the tightest restrictions on water use.
The State Department of Water Resources (DWR) has boosted to 30 percent of demand its allocation of water along the State Water Project. “And a warm and dry February has proved that we can’t count on El Nino to save us”, Marcus said. Since last June, however, the savings rate is 20 percent. In 2014, they received just five percent.
A remarkably dry February limited the latest water allocation increase – a stark reminder of how quickly California can turn from wet to dry.
Outdated water delivery infrastructure in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta also affected today’s allocation increase.
A total of 29 public agencies receive water from the State Water Project.
The state on Wednesday doubled the amount of water it expects to deliver this year to districts that serve 25 million residents as far south as San Diego and almost 1 million acres of farmland, with a warning that an extended dry spell could result in cutbacks.
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The Current: Subscribe to The Desert Sun’s weekly energy and water newsletter. Early winter El Nino storms, however, blanketed the Sierra Nevada with an above-average snowpack. Shasta Lake north of Redding, California’s and the federal Central Valley Project’s (CVP) largest reservoir, was holding 2,690,554 acre-feet, 59 percent of its 4.5 million acre-foot capacity and 82 percent of its historical average.
