Time to hook up your own rain barrel, tear up the lawn, and adopt-a-cactus!
Schwarzenegger declares California drought state of emergency
Mercury News Sacramento Bureau
Posted: 02/27/2009 01:56:18 PM PST
SACRAMENTO — Citing the third consecutive year of drought conditions, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger today declared a state of emergency and called on urban water users to cut their usage by 20 percent.
The announcement is expected to intensify talks about upgrading the state's water infrastructure — a contentious debate that has pitted environmentalists who favor conservation against proponents of building new dams to boost supplies. Negotiations in the Legislature stalled last year over the issue of dams.
The governor's proclamation directs state agencies to expedite water transfers to needy areas and take measures to ensure water supplies to farmers.
The governor said that drought conditions are having devastating economic effects on agriculture and other sectors.
"This is a crisis, just as severe as an earthquake or raging wildfire," Schwarzenegger said in a news release.
Officials are scheduled to discuss the governor's directive in a conference call with reporters this afternoon.
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http://www.mercurynews.com/politics/ci_11762993?nclick_check=1
Major reservoirs across Northern California remain so low that cities receiving water from San Francisco Bay's delta should expect only 50 percent of the water they are contracted to receive. And farmers across the Central Valley may have to do without any federal water at all. Much of that water comes from the snowpack in the Sierra Nevada, where this weekend's storm dumped snow only at the highest peaks, with a mixture of rain and snow elsewhere.
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Bill S. says:
Why does it always take a state of emergency before we take appropriate action? Conservation is great and we should all do whatever is necessary to use water wisely, but it's time we insure our future water supply and spend our money on desalination plants up and down the coast of California.