Despite recent stormy and wet days in Southern California, the Metropolitan Water District’s Board of Directors declared a regional drought emergency this week.
The resolution, passed by the board on Tuesday, Dec. 13 — but announced on Wednesday — asks water agencies to voluntarily cut down on imported supplies as the region enters its fourth consecutive dry year. If significant rainfall does not occur this winter, the district may issue mandatory water restrictions to the 26 agencies it supplies in April.
“Even though there have been some recent storms this past week, the conditions on the State Water Project are still very, very dry,” Brad Coffey, water resource manager at the Metropolitan Water District, said in a Wednesday interview.
“The reservoirs are about half of where they are normally at this time of the year,” he added, “and the conditions on the Colorado River – although there has been some snow there as well – are extremely dry and serious.”
The MWD imports around half of the water used in Southern California from the Colorado River and from the northern Sierra Mountains through the State Water Project. Some communities rely almost entirely on these imports, while other areas have self-sustaining water sources; many use a combination of local and imported water.
The timing of the MWD’s announcement may seem odd, given the recent storms that battered the Southland. But the MWD — which provides water to 26 agencies, from Anaheim to Pasadena — decided to call for voluntary water restrictions early in the season, given that California has been experiencing a prolonged drought and it would take a huge amount of rain to change that this year, Coffey said.
The announcement was also a stark reminder that the region is so parched, it will need a more than a few scattered showers this rainy season if it wants to escape the drought. MWD’s declaration, experts and water officials across Southern California said on Wednesday, also underscores the need for the region to adapt to climate change and the longer droughts it has already started to cause.
The past three years have been the driest in California history.
“If we don’t have an extremely wet winter, we will need to elevate to our highest level (of conservation) – a water supply allocation for all of Southern California. Substantial and immediate conservation now and in the coming months will help lessen the potential severity of such an allocation,” Metropolitan General Manager Adel Hagekhalil said in a written statement.
Coffey, for his part, indicated that some level of mandatory restrictions will be likely.
“We need to see a very, very wet winter to be able to avoid the potential for mandatory restrictions,” he said. “Just a normal winter really won’t do it for us.”
In the meantime, MWD has asked its 26 member agencies to encourage conservation in their communities.
Consecutive dry years, ‘a rare triple dip’
The prolonged drought, experts say, has been exacerbated by La Niña, a phenomenon creates especially dry temperatures. It’s essentially the antithesis to the more well-known El Niño.
“In our SoCal region, this dry weather is affected by the persistence of the La Niña phenomenon,” Lily House-Peters, an assistant professor in Cal State Long Beach’s geology department, said in a Wednesday evening interview. “We are now in what people are calling a rare triple dip — our third La Niña season.”
Though previous three-year La Niña cycles have been documented at least three times since 1950, there has never been four consecutive years of the weather pattern documented.
There is some good news on that front, however.
The National Weather Service’s Climate Prediction Center recently said there is a 71% chance of that temperatures in the Pacific Ocean — which impacts the chances of La Niña — return to normal between February and April.
If La Niña were to weaken moving into next year, House-Peters said, there’s a chance California could see some later winter season rain. Last year, after seeing some showers early on, the state’s traditional rainy season petered out.
“But looking forward, it is troubling that we are heading into our winter season — when we have the majority of our precipitation — in this kind of stubborn La Niña, which tends to bring us significantly less rainfall,” the assistant professor added. “So at the regional level, I think we need to start moving beyond the weather, to other ways that we can become more drought resilient.”
To that end, House-Peters spoke about the importance — and effectiveness — of water conservation efforts.
Reducing outdoor water use is key
Among the most important fronts in the conservation effort is reducing outdoor water use, which comprises around 75% of all consumption in Southern California, according to the MWD.
Many of MWD’s member agencies already limit the number of days a week residents are allowed to water lawns and gardens.
In Long Beach, for example, residents are asked to only water two days a week and to refrain from watering outdoors within 48 hours of rain. That city, the second most populous in LA County, has frequently touted its water conservation efforts — and did so again on Wednesday.
“Long Beach’s water use has exceeded the savings rate that many in the state have had on average, as well as some of the agencies in Southern California,” said Anatole Falagan, assistant general manager at the Long Beach Water Department.
“We’re very proud of the response that the community has had to the calls for conservation,” Falagan added, “and we expect that we’ll continue to outreach to the community so that the conservation message sticks well into 2023.”
The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power is also already in compliance with the MWD’s order, Anselmo Collins, DWP’s water system senior assistant general manager, said during a Tuesday board meeting.
Because of that, Collins said, LADWP customers won’t see much of a change under the MWD’s declaration.
Beyond water restrictions, many communities are investing in water recycling projects to convert runoff and wastewater into usable water, in an effort to lessen their reliance on imports from the MWD.
The Inland Empire Utilities Agency, for example, is currently developing an advanced water treatment facility to recycle 15 thousand acre-feet of water from the Chino Groundwater Basin annually.
“Now, more than ever, we need to come together to develop local solutions,” IEUA General Manager Shivaji Deshmukh said in a statement, “such as increasing the capacity and ability to develop recycled water, that will increase water supply reliability today and for the future.”
Compton, meanwhile, completely cut off using water from the Metropolitan Water District about four years ago, said Victor Meza, general manager for that city’s Water Department.
The city’s water is now drawn entirely from eight local underground wells, which were restored by the Water Replenishment District. Compton would only have to turn the MWD spigot back on in case of emergencies, such as if multiple wells were down or contaminated.
And through water conservation efforts, Compton now runs on 7,000 acre feet of locally supplied water annually. Previously, the city imported 9,000 acre feet from MWD each year.
In the upcoming year, Meza said, Compton plans to rehabilitate its wells so that it can keep saving the region’s water.
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Anaheim, meanwhile, is also investing heavily in purifying its groundwater – to the tune of a $150 million project.
The Orange County city is about halfway done with installing systems to treat its groundwater, which currently contains elevated levels of polyfluoroalkyl substances, Anaheim spokesperson Mike Lyster said. These chemicals are used in everything from clothing and furniture to food packaging and heat-resistant non-stick cookware, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Anaheim discovered the chemicals in 2019 — which prompted the city to import more of its water.
Currently, Anaheim imports about 75% of its water, with the rest coming from local supplies. Come this fall, with the purification systems in place, the city hopes to supply 75% locally, Lyster said.
The MWD is also spearheading water recycling initiatives, including one of the largest recycled water facilities in the world – Pure Water Southern California. When complete, this facility will produce up to 150 million gallons of water a day and provide purified water for up to 15 million people.
Still, until more of these projects are in operation, conservation efforts remain critical to getting the region through the drought.
“Some Southern Californians may have felt somewhat protected from these extreme conditions over the past few years,” MWD board Chair Gloria D. Gray said in a written statement. “They shouldn’t anymore. We are all affected.”