Guides, Stories & Resources

How is California’s water conservation after last report? The October number just arrived, so here they are: In September, Californians reduced water usage by 18.3% vs. 2013, in October, 19.5%. They are quite consistent with the numbers since June, when the water conservation mandate was lifted, in the 17%-22% range. These numbers indicate Californians continue to put in the effort to conserve water after the mandate, and the result is about 20% reduction for total potable urban water use since June.

I want to get rid of the brown lawn, like yesterday! and I want a garden of flowers! ” declared Sheena (not the real name), the owner of the house and a mom of young girls.

The brown lawn has been an eye sore to the owner of the house for quite a while. He had been wanting to replace it with something more beautiful, but did not know where to start. Since California’s drought five years ago, he put in his effort to conserve water, turning off the sprinklers. Sure enough, the lawn went brown. He heard about Landscape Conversion Rebate Program, but did not know how it worked.

When it rains and all the raindrops fall on our roofs, have you thought about where the stormwater go to? Well, most of it just goes down the sewer, into the creeks and rivers, and eventually out to the ocean.

The latest water conservation number just came in. In August, Californians reduced water usage by 17.7% vs. 2013, 35% less than what was achieved last August (27%).

(Published on Sept 1, 2016) “Severe drought” This is what we kept seeing when we were on our way to Tahoe for a weekend camping trip 2 weeks ago. Throughout the 4 hour drive, we could see the same sign, from east Bay all the way to Tahoe:

Wild flowers are in full bloom on Pacific Coast! Look at the fields full of wild flowers – what a beautiful view!

Last April, facing California’s historical 4 year drought, Governor Jerry Brown issued an executive order making it mandatory that statewide urban water use be reduced by 25% compared with 2013 levels starting June 2015. In May 2015, the State Water Board adopted an emergency regulation requiring an immediate 25 percent reduction in overall potable urban water use. Now one year has passed, how well have Californians been doing?

Beautiful blossom I planted a rockrose in our garden, in the San Francisco Bay area, about 2 years ago. Since then, it just remained a quiet small shrub. All leaves. No blossom. Never thought anything about it until a morning in March, after a full day of heavy rain and a pretty heavy rainy season brought by El Nino. Voila! flowers!

Do all the rains brought about by El Nino end California’s historical drought? The answer is No. While the rains definitely helped ease the drought, they did not end it. As you can see from the graph below, statewide snowpack stood at way lower than average from 2012-2015; in 2015, that level went down to a really low 5%. In Spring 2016, while the rains brought by El Nino helped put the level back to 85%, one season of rain fall simply is not enough to offset the deficits accumulated from 4 years of drought. During the past 4 years, groundwater levels dropped to historical lows; in parts of the state it was as low as 100 feet below previous historical lows. It will take much more than what we receive so far to recover the storage.