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.

Cut it off

Cut minutes off your irrigation. Keep cutting until your plants tell you to stop, or let a new controller do it for you.

Up to $300 for weather-based irrigation controllers

Take it out

Western is now offering $5 per square foot of turf removed for the first 1,000 square feet.

$5 per square foot

Switch it up

Western offers a $5 per nozzle rebate for high-efficiency sprinkler nozzles.

$5 per nozzle

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.