“This is a crisis. This is unprecedented. “We have never done anything like this before and because we have never seen this situation happen before, we do not have enough water to meet the normal needs of the six million people living in areas dependent on the state water project,” said Adele Hagehalil. general manager of the Southern California Water District, noting that conservation must begin seriously now, as water use usually increases during the summer months.
Metropolitan is urging residents in his region to reduce water consumption by 35% to avoid a total ban on watering later in the summer.
“50% to 70% of water consumption (per capita) is needed,” Hagehalil said of outdoor watering, adding: “We ask people to reduce this water by almost half, if not more.”
Extremely dry conditions have caused the state water project to “dramatically reduce” the amount of water the Metropolitan receives from the northern Sierra Mountains by two-thirds, Hagehalil said.
So far, Metropolitan Executive Director and Assistant General Manager Deven Upadhiai said the Ministry of Water Resources has reduced the distribution of the state’s water project to just 5% of what it normally receives for the second year in a row.
“This latest low allocation comes in the third year of the drought and does not provide enough water to meet the minimum needs for human safety and health that we would need in the areas dependent on the state water project,” Upadhai said.
The move comes as California faces constant dry weather-induced drought that has led to severe water shortages, despite record snow in early winter. Last summer, the state saw its worst drought in its 126-year record. .
The new restrictions are due to be implemented by June 1st, and water agencies are expected to impose them, said Rebecca Kimic, program manager for the Southern California water region.
About 6 million people live in the affected areas and rely on water from Northern California.
“If we do not take the action we need today to stretch the water … The Metropolitan Board has given me the authority to ban all watering as soon as September 1,” Hagehalil said.
The Los Angeles Department of Water and Energy – which has had restrictions on irrigation for more than a decade – will work with water authorities and city officials as emergency drought rules are finalized, he said, adding that water use in housing its area is now 111 gallons per day, among the lowest in the region.
“Additional restrictions on water use must be balanced with the high level of protection that has already been achieved by … customers. Water protection must be achieved throughout the region,” the agency told CNN in a statement.
In fact, the issue goes beyond California.
The federal government announced its first water shortage in the Colorado River in August, leading to a mandatory water cut for southwestern states.
The snow cover is falling sharply
While parts of California received record snow late last year, that wasn’t enough to ease the severe drought.
About 17 feet of snow fell in December at the Berkeley Snow Laboratory in the Central Sierra at the University of California, making it the snowiest December there and the third snowiest month overall, the scientists said. But rainfall has eased since then, with January-March being the driest “by a huge margin” in 101 years of recording at three key monitoring stations in California, the National Weather Service said.
This reduction is reflected in the reduction of snow cover in the Sierra Nevada, which was only 38% of normal this winter.
Snow usually accumulates in the Sierra Nevada throughout the winter, storing water that later melts and flows into reservoirs in the spring. Snowpack provides 30% of California’s water, according to the State Department of Water Resources.
South of Lake Tahoe, at Phillips Station, the depth of snow was 2.5 inches on April 1, compared to the average depth for that day there of 66.5 inches, the official said. This meager depth of snow is 1 inch of water – only 4% of the average for April 1, said Sean de Guzman, an engineer in the department.
CNN’s Rachel Ramirez contributed to this report.
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