May’s rainstorms brought a tremendous amount of water to California, but were not enough to end the current three-year drought.

Numbers released by the California Department of Water Resources show that many of the state’s reservoirs have reached near-normal levels. In Sacramento, the total rainfall to date of nearly 16 inches is about 90 percent of normal.

The news isn’t all good, though. By comparison, Los Angeles has received only 62 percent of its normal rainfall. And statewide snowpack water content is hovering around 63 percent of normal.

According to the California Drought Report, released in March by DWR and the California Department of Agriculture, there are significant differences between this and past droughts, differences that are compounding the severity of the drought.

The report notes that California’s population has increased by 9 million new residents since 1990, stricter regulations have been put in place in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to protect threatened and endangered fish species, and changes in agricultural practices have eliminated some flexibility for adapting to low-water years.

In early 2008, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger directed several state agencies to come up with a plan to reduce California’s water use by 20 percent by the year 2020. The draft 20x2020 Water Conservation Plan was released in April, and a public workshop is being held in Sacramento at the end of this month.

The plan notes that, with the growing population and population movement to drier climates, California’s “demand for water has exceeded our reliable developed supply.” The report goes on to say that “The Delta is in crisis, drought has depleted our reservoirs and groundwater resources are overdrafted. Our need to pursue conservation and eliminate unnecessary uses of water is more important than ever to ensure the future health of our state.”

The 20x2020 Plan is intended as an aggressive, statewide plan to improve water efficiency and conservation in urban areas from now through 2020. Its recommendations include a statewide conservation strategy, measures for enhancing water use efficiency, methods for reducing water waste (such as accelerated installation of water meters) and development of programs to reduce landscaping irrigation, among others.

The public workshop on the 20x2020 Plan is scheduled for Friday, May 29, 2009, from 10:00 a.m. to no later than 1:00 p.m.

Location:
John Moss Federal Building
CALFED Bay and Delta Rooms
650 Capitol Mall, 5th Floor
Sacramento, CA 95814

The 20x2020 Plan can be downloaded from the California Urban Water Conservation Council's website: www.cuwcc.org
To see the California Drought Report, go to: www.water.ca.gov/drought/updates.cfm