March water use increased 18.9% compared to March 2022; Newsom asked for 15% conservation
Drought? Californians apparently don’t care.
“We just came off the driest January, February and March in recorded history,” said Jeffrey Mount, a professor emeritus at UC Davis and senior fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California’s water center. “It was a jaw-droppingly dry three months. People started turning on their sprinklers early. That’s where the water went. To their lawns. Pure and simple.”
In recent weeks, some major water agencies have begun to take more steps. The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power announced Tuesday that it will allow customers to water lawns just twice a week, and for 8 minutes. The East Bay Municipal Utility District put in place three-day-a-week rules, along with an 8% water surcharge, and policies that by this summer will result in the names of its biggest water users being made public.
During California’s last drought, from 2012 to 2016, former Gov. Jerry Brown at first issued a voluntary call for conservation. But when Californians failed to meet his targets and the drought worsened, Brown issued a 25% mandatory urban water use rule, with targets and fines for agencies that failed to meet them. Some water agencies complained, because local water agencies make less money when they sell less water, unless they raise water rates. But Brown achieved the conservation target.
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