Paula Peterson
Water conservation efforts in California have saved 2.51 million acre-feet of water since June of 2105. This is enough water to provide 6.24 million homes with water for a year, or almost one-third of the state’s population.
Since state-mandated water restrictions have been in place, the cumulative statewide savings has been 22.5 percent, when compared with the previous 18-month period.
Since June 2015, the 817.9 billion gallons saved is enough water to supply more than 12.5 million people with water for a year has been saved at the state level.
In South Lake Tahoe, 434 million gallons of water or 1,331 acre feet of water was saved during the same period, June 2015 to January 2017.
According to Donielle Morse, Water Conservation Specialist for the South Tahoe Public Utility District, they will be continuing the designated watering days this summer for homes and businesses as they have since 2004.
Prior to the drought driver restrictions, the average Californian household used 360 gallons of water a day, or 131,400 gallons a year. Conservation efforts have brought the daily usage down to a statewide average of 58.1 gallons per household.
After five years of extreme drought, this winter has generated record precipitation, near record snow and caused flooding in multiple locations. This swing from extreme dry to extreme wet conditions is becoming increasingly frequent due to climate change. On Tuesday, the California State Water Board adopted a resolution to address climate change impacts, including enhanced protection of vulnerable communities and infrastructure from droughts, floods, and sea level rise.
“Californians continue to conserve despite the wet weather in many areas,” said State Water Board Chair Felicia Marcus. “This ongoing effort is important rain or shine for all sorts of reasons, in light of the greater extremes we can expect with climate change and increasingly weird weather. We’re going to need to use all our tools including conservation and efficiency, water recycling, stormwater capture, and storing water above and below ground in wet times to get us through the dry times to deal with the Mack truck of climate change that has already arrived.
“Californians understand that ongoing water conservation benefits everyone, and we are grateful that people have not forgotten five years of devastating drought now that our reservoirs are overflowing,” Marcus added.