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By
Hector Becerra
Los Angeles Times
September 15, 2007
Watering the lawn under the moonlight. The specter of
"water police."
If the current water shortage is beginning to sound a lot like
the great drought of 1990-91, grab a glass of water and chill.
Although Long Beach is beginning mandatory water restrictions
and other communities are expected to join suit, the
Southland's water supply is in significantly better shape than
it was 17 years ago.
Officials say they learned from that drought and spent the
ensuing years building up water reserve capacity. Despite the
record dry conditions, the Metropolitan Water District has 14
times more reservoir and groundwater storage than it did in
1991, with many local reservoirs flush with water. This is
giving the region a buffer against a reduction in supplies
from Northern California and the Colorado River.
Moreover, the region has learned to conserve in dramatic
fashion.
In 1991, the average household used 210 gallons of water a
day. Today, thanks to low-flow toilets, new shower heads and
changes in behavior, that number has declined to about 180
gallons, according to water officials.
In a sign that the conservation message is sinking in, the
Metropolitan Water District said it delivers the same amount
of water -- 2.1 million acre feet a year -- to Southern
California now as it did in 1990. That's despite having 3
million more customers.
Water officials warn that more restrictions -- and possibly
higher rates -- are on the way in the coming months. But they
said this was not yet a crisis.
In fact, water officials and weather experts believe that
further restrictions might result in enough savings to deal
with the continued dryness and a recent court ruling that
could yield a 30% reduction in water deliveries from Northern
California.
Moreover, they argue that mandatory water reduction is
important because Southern Californians need to learn how to
do more with less as the region's population grows and water
supplies remain finite.
"Never have so many people had water so cheap, so clean
and so uninterrupted as Southern California has for the last
50 years," said Bill Patzert, a climatologist for the Jet
Propulsion Laboratory in La Caņada Flintridge. "We just
need to use water more rationally."
The drought of 1990-91 bore some similarities to today. There
were record dry conditions that affected not just Southern
California but the two areas where the region gets much of its
imported water: the Colorado River and Sacramento-San Joaquin
Delta.
In response, the state cut water deliveries to the region --
only the second time in history that had happened.
Southern California was jolted. Restrictions on water use were
imposed, prompting complaints from both residents and farmers.
At the height of the drought, water deliveries to Southern
California were reduced by half. Lawns shriveled and turned
brown.
But there are also major differences between 1990-91 and
today. Back then, water levels at state reservoirs were so low
they were considered to be "essentially empty" --
creating a severe shortage of water for customers.
Today, the water supply is much more plentiful thanks to
lessons learned from the drought.
"It taught us a lot," said Debra Man, chief
operating officer and assistant general manager for the
Metropolitan Water District, which delivers water to most of
Southern California. "We learned that we had to really
diversify our water resources. We had to be prepared for some
of the worst-case drought events."
More than $3 billion has been spent on increased water storage
above and below ground. In 1999, water importers built the
260-million-gallon Diamond Valley Lake in Riverside County.
Also, before 1990, the MWD did not focus on groundwater
storage. That changed because of the drought, and now aquifers
are carefully managed.
The MWD had only 225,000 acre-feet stored in 1990. Today, the
district has 2.7 million acre-feet in storage. An acre-foot is
about 326,000 gallons, enough to cover an acre 1 foot deep or
supply two households for a year.
Also over the last decade, officials moved to diversify the
water supply. The district signed an agreement with an agency
in the San Joaquin Valley to hold 350,000 acre-feet of MWD
water from the State Water Project, which delivers water from
Northern California to much of the Southland. The district has
since signed agreements with other farming areas and desert
water districts outside of Southern California to store an
additional 700,000 acre-feet.
Man said a goal of the MWD is to reduce its reliance on water
from the Colorado River and the State Water Project from 50%
of the district's supplies to 26% by 2025.
Despite these improvements, regional water officials said they
expect more mandatory water rationing because of the current
drought and water problems. Long Beach took the first step
Thursday, imposing rules on when residents can water lawns and
how restaurants serve water to customers.
Southern California is seeing its driest year on record. In
addition, the region could see as much as 30% of its water
supply cut because of a federal judge's ruling last month.
U.S. District Judge Oliver W. Wanger ordered protective
measures for a tiny endangered fish in the Sacramento-San
Joaquin Delta. Delta smelt grow to about 3 inches and live
about a year. A so-called indicator species that is a
harbinger of ecological conditions in the delta, the smelt
were declared threatened in 1993.
Long Beach officials said Friday that the city expects a water
shortage and that it needs its residents to conserve more.
Also, they said they hoped to permanently change how residents
use water.
"This is a proactive step, and we're hoping other cities
follow," said Kevin Wattier, general manager of the Long
Beach Water Department. "Let's be prudent and tighten our
belt as much as we can."
Over the years, more people have relied on devices such as
low-flow toilets and shower heads, and municipal codes have
been enacted to require new buildings to carry these devices.
More water is recycled, and there has been a push for people
to landscape with plants that do not require as much water.
But a lot more has to be done, experts say. Over the next
half-century, according to a recent state projection,
California's population will grow by nearly 75% to about 60
million people. And the water supply is not going to keep up,
officials said.
The MWD is having to dip into its reserves because of the
drought conditions, a concern because those are designed to be
saved for an emergency, such as a major earthquake.
And though the region has depended on water from the north,
there have been signs over the years that that reliance needs
to be eased.
In 2003, the MWD lost its exclusive rights to surplus water
from the Colorado River because Arizona and Nevada began to
get their full share. MWD lost half of its water from the
river when that happened.
"We're living in a desert," said Patzert. "We
should be using less water."
hector.becerra@latimes.com
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