San Diego County Water Authority officials are urging residents to turn off sprinklers and continue to save water despite recent rain and snow.
The authority said the winter’s first manual snow survey results, released Tuesday, underscore the need for increased water conservation statewide. The measurement of 4 inches of snow water equivalent near Echo Summit in Northern California was only 33 percent of average for the date. Statewide, the snow water equivalent was only 50 percent of average for the date.
“While storms have improved water supply conditions over the past month, they have not delivered nearly enough precipitation to make up for the lack of rain and snow over the past three years,” said Jason Foster, director of public outreach and conservation for the authority. “We must continue seizing every opportunity to save water. San Diego County residents have done a great job conserving over the past several years, but the drought isn’t over and the job isn’t done.
“Resolve to cut water use wherever possible in 2015,” Foster said. “One easy way is to turn off irrigation systems when rainstorms are imminent and leave them off for a few weeks, or until the top one to two inches of soil are dry.”
State officials said it would take a series of storms delivering well-above-average amounts of rain and snow statewide over the next few months to pull California out of drought. The initial 2015 allocation from the State Water Project — an important water source for San Diego County — has been set at only 10 percent of requested supplies.
