At meeting with the state’s largest urban water suppliers, Governor Newsom called for an increase in water conservation
SACRAMENTO – Today, Governor Gavin Newsom convened leaders from the state’s largest urban water suppliers, which cover two thirds of Californians, and water associations imploring them to take more aggressive actions to combat drought and better engage their customers to ensure all Californians are doing their part to save water.
After the last drought, local water agencies pushed for greater flexibility on water conservation and drought response based on regional needs and water supplies, arguing that tailored local approaches would be more effective than statewide mandates. Governor Newsom has embraced this localized approach, but voiced concerns today given recent conservation levels around the state, and called on water agencies to step up efforts to reduce water use amid extreme drought conditions.
Governor Newsom warned that if this localized approach to conservation does not result in a significant reduction in water use statewide this summer, the state could be forced to enact mandatory restrictions.
The Governor will reconvene these same agencies in the next two months to provide an update on their progress.
“Every water agency across the state needs to take more aggressive actions to communicate about the drought emergency and implement conservation measures,” said Governor Gavin Newsom. “Californians made significant changes since the last drought but we have seen an uptick in water use, especially as we enter the summer months. We all have to be more thoughtful about how to make every drop count.”
Governor Newsom convenes summit of state’s largest urban water suppliers
The Governor also called upon local water agencies to submit water use data more frequently and increase transparency in order to more accurately measure whether California is meeting water conservation goals. In addition, the Governor called on local water agencies to increase education and outreach efforts to Californians on the urgency of the crisis.
In July 2021, Governor Newsom called on Californians to voluntarily reduce their water use by 15%. At the end of March 2022 after the state failed to meet its 15% goal, the Governor issued an Executive Order calling on local water agencies to escalate their response to the ongoing drought. Tomorrow, at the Governor’s direction, the State Water Resources Control Board will vote on a statewide ban on watering of non-functional turf in the commercial, industrial and institutional sectors as well as regulations requiring local agencies to implement water use restrictions amid the possibility that water supplies may be up to 20% lower due to extreme weather. Currently, local water agencies have implemented restrictions on about half of California’s population. If the Board’s regulations are approved, every urban area of California will be covered by a local plan to reduce water use.
Banning watering of decorative lawns would save between 156,000 acre-feet and 260,000 acre-feet per year, the equivalent of water used by 780,000 households in a year.
The climate crisis has resulted in the western United States experiencing one of the most extensive and intense droughts on record. January through March were the driest first three months in the state’s recorded history, the state’s largest reservoirs are currently at half of their historical averages, and the state’s snowpack is just 14 percent of average.
The Governor’s California Blueprint proposed this year would invest an additional $2 billion for drought response, which includes $100 million in addition to a previous investment of $16 million this fiscal year for a statewide education and communications effort on drought. These investments build on the previous $5.2 billion three-year investment in the state’s drought response and water resilience through the California Comeback Plan (2021).
Governor Newsom convenes summit of state’s largest urban water suppliers
California’s master water plan, the Water Resilience Portfolio, is a comprehensive vision to build water resilience containing more than 142 separate detailed actions to be taken by state agencies to ensure that California’s water systems can cope with rising temperatures, shrinking snowpacks, rising sea levels and more intense and frequent periods of drought. In March 2021, the Administration released the 2012-2016 Drought Report, which contains lessons learned by state agencies during the last drought.
The state is calling on Californians to take immediate action to avoid a crisis, including:
-
Limiting outdoor watering – cutting back by even just one day a week can save you up to 20% more water.
-
Taking shorter showers. Going to a 5 minute shower to save up to 12.5 gallons per shower when using a water-efficient shower head.
-
Taking showers instead of baths – a bath uses up to 2.5 times the amount of water as a shower.
-
Using a broom instead of a hose to clean outdoor areas to save 6 gallons of water every minute.
-
Washing full loads of clothes to save 15-45 gallons of water per load.
More water saving tips can be found at www.saveourwater.com. For the latest on drought, please visit drought.ca.gov.
###
"local" - Google News
May 24, 2022 at 02:19AM
https://ift.tt/xLkFMjr
Governor Newsom Convenes Summit with Local Water Leaders, Urges More Aggressive Response to Ongoing Drought | California Governor - Office of Governor Gavin Newsom
"local" - Google News
https://ift.tt/SHc4JWY
https://ift.tt/8JXcnv9
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Governor Newsom Convenes Summit with Local Water Leaders, Urges More Aggressive Response to Ongoing Drought | California Governor - Office of Governor Gavin Newsom"
Post a Comment