Water Conservation Needs to Start Now!
As many may know, Gov. Schwarzenegger declared a state wide drought here in California. I just listened to a podcast from the Department of Water Resources (DWR) explaining why we are in a drought and why this drought is different the past ones.
So Why the Drought?
First we had 2 back-to-back dry winters… although we had a state average snowpack of 100%.. California needed 130% snowpack or better to make up for last year… March and April were the driest they’d been historically.
Second, restricted water transfers. Due to protection efforts and changes in fish populations in the Delta, agencies are restricting the amount of water that may be pumped out of the delta and transfered down south. Furthermore the Colorado basin has completed a drought that lasted multiple years leaving water storages very low with no surplus for California.
What Does This Mean?
It means we all need to start conserving now. We need conserve now so we can have enough water to get us through 2009 in the event we have another dry winter. This is why the Gov. declared drought now instead of waiting till September 30th to see how much water we have left over.
How do we conserve water?
It’s pretty simple… use less water. Make sure you wash full loads of laundry, take showers every other day instead of daily, water your lawn less. I already shortened the duration of each sprinker station by 3 minutes. Other way to help in conserving water is by fixing leaky faucets, take shorter showers and let your little kids take a bath together instead of separately.
The time to take action is now… start conserving water today. If you have other ways to conserve water please share your comments
