News

Efficient Water Use Remains Important – Rain or Shine

MNWD lifts three-day-per-week watering restrictions. LAGUNA NIGUEL, Calif. (May 3, 2011) - Last month, following near-record winter precipitation, Governor Jerry Brown officially declared an end to California’s three-year drought emergency, which prompted MNWD’s wholesale water supplier to increase deliveries to Southern California. MNWD followed by removing the Level 2 Water Alert and the three-day-per-week watering restrictions that had been in place since 2009. But South Orange County is a semi-arid region with few local water supplies, so efficient water use remains critical in wet and dry years alike.

The term "drought" refers only to weather conditions, defined by scientists as a prolonged period of below-average precipitation. The recent rains have helped MNWD’s two primary sources of water, the Sierra Nevada Mountains and the Upper Colorado River Basin, which have suffered from several years of drought. But our water problems persist because separate from the drought, California is also in the midst of a water shortage. Even if Mother Nature gives the state enough water to meet everyone’s needs, court rulings, environmental regulations, a shortage of water reservoirs, and an outdated delivery system limit our ability to capture water and move it from where it falls to where it’s needed.

Perhaps the next drought has already started; perhaps it won’t start for another two or three years. In either case, MNWD customers must continue being as efficient as possible to protect our region’s limited water resources. Rain or shine, water is too valuable to waste.

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