Why we have Water Rationing

Yes the drought is over for now, but we have water rationing not only because LA is a semi-desert and we have had years of a drought (over for the time being); they have rationing up the Central Coast, the San Joaquin Valley and in the Bay Area too. Really it is because there isn’t always enough water from the Sierra Nevada snowpack (currently only at 19%), the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and the Colorado River to satisfy everyone; growth in western states has outstripped water resources; politicians have reached a stalemate; and water is wasted because it is artificially cheap (the cost of transporting the water is subsidized, reducing the amount we pay for it). We have a boom or bust approach to water management. For a national drought map, to see where the real problems are, click here.

To take just the Sierra Nevada example, the people who’ve lost out big time since the 1900’s are in Inyo County, the Owens Valley and Mono Lake, areas that have never been able to develop agriculturally or culturally and instead have salt pans and toxic alkali dust storms in their place. In recent years, forced by the courts, LADWP has been involved in mitigation projects - info here.

According to the LADWP website, “Today, Los Angeles Aqueduct deliveries have, on average, supplied about half of the City’s water needs over the last ten years.” That water is stored at the Los Angeles Reservoir in Sylmar and then after filtration relies on gravity flow to points south, including Encino. We do not get water from Encino Reservoir (until there's an emergency).

The question is: will we have access to even less water in the future? The fight over the Delta in northern California has been brutal and is now up in the air and the Salton Sea deal was voided by a judge. It's still chaos. That is the reason we have water rationing.

Photo credit: © 2004 Matthew Trump