California curbs water use
TUSTIN, Calif. — Gary Whitlock watched water run down to the sidewalk as gardeners hosed down a bed of marigolds outside an Orange County office building and questioned if California’s latest attempt to curb water use would be any more successful than previous ones in the drought-stricken state.
Gov. Jerry Brown on Wednesday ordered sweeping and unprecedented measures to save water in California. A survey that day found the snowpack, which supplies a third of the state’s water, almost completely vanished.
“We’re in a new era; the idea of your nice little green grass getting water every day, that’s going to be a thing of the past,” Brown said, standing on a brown field that would normally be covered in snow that melts its way into taps.
The governor’s order calls for cities and towns to cut water use by 25 percent, but many Californians like Whitman aren’t seeing a difference in their day-to-day routines or a hit to their wallets because of the drought.
“You see people that just run water all the time, people that are watering their lawns, parks that are not using recycled water,” said Whitlock.
“This has been going on for years and everybody that I talk to says, `Oh, well, you know, it’s going to rain, El Niño’s coming.”
Cities have developed local storage supplies to soften the blow of future dry years, which also insulates residents from the severity of the drought. Brown also asked for a voluntary 25 percent cut in water use in 1977 during his first term as governor.
Nearly 40 years later, Brown warns that drought may be the new normal. Surveyors on Wednesday found the lowest snow level in the Sierra Nevada snowpack in 65 years of record-keeping, marking a fourth consecutive year of vanishing snow that California depends on to melt into rivers and replenish reservoirs.
He signed an executive order ordering officials to impose statewide mandatory water restrictions and expand programs intended to reshape how Californians use water.
Cemeteries, golf courses and business headquarters must significantly cut back on watering their large landscapes. Local governments will tear out 50 million square feet of lawns for drought-tolerant plants. And customers will get money for replacing old water-sucking appliances with efficient ones under a temporary rebate program.
These initiatives tie back to a central goal of reducing urban water use by 25 percent compared to 2013 levels, the year before Brown declared a drought emergency. In January 2014, Brown asked Californians to cut water use by 20 percent, but he said Wednesday they haven’t come halfway to meeting that target, prompting stronger action.
