Governor Jerry Brown ended the drought state of emergency in most of California Friday, garnering praise from San Diego County’s Water Authority.
Record-breaking rainfall helped create a dramatic improvement in water supplies. Heavy rains fell across California this winter, including record-breaking precipitation in San Diego County, according to the Water Authority.
State agencies also issued a plan to make conservation a way of life in California. Governor Brown says this will include new legislation to improve planning for severe droughts and establishing long-term water conservation measures.
“This drought emergency is over, but the next drought could be around the corner,” said Governor Brown, in a statement. “Conservation must remain a way of life.”
The Water Authority’s Board of Directors passed a resolution declaring the end of the drought conditions in San Diego County in January.
“It’s also important to remember that San Diego County ratepayers spent more than $3.5 billion over the past three decades to improve the region’s drought resilience,” said Mark Muir, the Chair of the Water Authority’s Board of Directors, in a statement.
That included a new water storage capacity and locally controlled, drought-proof water supplies from the Claude “Bud” Lewis Carlsbad Desalination Plant, said Muir.
“We not only had enough supplies to meet demands during the height of the drought, but we are in a stronger position today to ensure regional water supply reliability than we were at the start of the drought,” said Muir.
San Diego County has 100,000 acre-feet of conserved water stored in the San Vicente Reservoir for future droughts, said Muir. Each year adds 56,000 more acre-feet of conserved water from the desalination plant as well.
With these vast reserves of water, San Diego was able to pass the state’s stringent water supply ‘stress test,’ showing that we have enough water to last for three more dry years.
Muir applauded the efforts of San Diego County who beat the state’s emergency water-use reduction mandates throughout 2015 and 2016, continuing to use less water even after drought conditions have ended.
“Going forward, it’s critical for San Diegans to keep embracing water-use efficiency as a way of life, including by continuing to adopt WaterSmart landscapes that maintain our quality of life while using less water,” said Muir. “Water is our most precious natural resource, and we know that dry times will return.”
Although the drought has been declared over, the San Diego County Water Authority says they will continue to offer resources promoting water efficiency and conservation.
Governor Brown has maintained water reporting requirements and prohibitions on wasteful practices like watering right after rainfall.
The only counties in California where Gov. Brown did not lift the drought emergency are Fresno, Kings, Tulare and Tuolumne.
From 2012 to 2016, the drought caused the driest four-year statewide lack of precipitation on record. They were also marked by extraordinary heat, with some of California’s warmest years.
