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Drought status and water supply
Latest drought news
On April 27, 2022, The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD) unanimously adopted new drought restrictions, limiting outdoor watering to one day per week for cities and communities in Los Angeles, Ventura and San Bernardino counties – that rely mostly on state water. These areas depend on MWD to supply water from Northern California, via the State Water Project. These agencies have virtually no access to local water or water that comes from the Colorado River.
Western customers
This mandate DOES NOT apply to Western Municipal Water District or its customers. Western customers have made significant investments in local water projects which have helped Western become less dependent on deliveries from the State Water Project. Now, nearly 40% of Western's water comes from local sources.
Future drought outlook
While the current mandates do not apply to Western customers, this underscores the urgent and serious nature of the drought. Western is urging customers to act now to reduce water use, especially outdoors, where the biggest water savings can be achieved. Western needs customers to know that future mandatory water usage cutbacks may be required if these extreme drought conditions persist, and supplies continue to dwindle.
- Here's what to do?
- Are there mandatory cutbacks?
- Will my bill go up?
- What is Western doing to prepare?
Believe it or not, more than 60 percent of residential water use is outside watering. Some of the easiest ways Western customers can save water and stay within their outdoor water budget is by adjusting irrigation schedules, installing weather-based irrigation controllers, and moving to a drip irrigation system.
Experiment with your irrigation
Don't be afraid to experiment. Skip watering for a week and see what happens, then try two weeks, and so on! When you notice signs of distress (wilting or leaf discoloration), give plants a good soak. And remember, when it rains, you can often go days or even weeks without watering.
Explore more water-saving tools
In addition to these practices, customers are encouraged to use our various indoor and outdoor water efficiency rebates, tools, publications, and programs to help them save even more. These can all be found online at wmwd.com/Rebates.
Not at this time. Governor Newsom issued an updated executive order calling for Californians to voluntarily reduce water use by 20% compared to 2020 usage and ordered water agencies to move to "Level 2" of their Water Storage Contingency Plans (WSCP). Western is meeting this requirement and is already in Stage 2 of its WSCP.
In the event of long-term drought conditions, you may be required to reduce your water usage and may see drought fines for using water inefficiently. The best way to manage your water bill is to stay within your personalized water budget. Residential water budgets are calculated based on the number of days in the billing cycles, the number of people in your home, your irrigated landscape area, and local weather data. Learn more about your water budget by visiting, wmwd.com/WaterBudget.
Western thinks about your water constantly so you don’t have to. We are continuing to invest in programs and facilities to further expand water supply reliability for customers. These investments are designed to lessen the impact of prolonged droughts such as the one we are currently experiencing. Just five years ago, Western and its Riverside customers were 100 percent dependent upon water imported from the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD) through the State Water Project and California River Aqueduct. Today, that dependence is down to about 60 percent.
Western also has a Water Supply Shortage Contingency Plan in place to strategically reduce water consumption during drought and water supply emergencies. Learn more about Western's drought response actions.
Western is committed to supporting the conservation efforts in Northern California, promoting state voluntary guidelines and the One Water approach of The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. This means, Western and its customers will continue to keep up the good work of saving water here in Southern California and stepping up water use efficiency efforts when needed.