Gavin Newsom announced a drought emergency in two Northern California counties on Wednesday while standing on Lake Mendocino’s arid shoreline.
The statement gives state regulators extensive powers to curtail diversions in the parched Russian river basin and relax river flow standards that require more discharges from the region’s shrinking reservoirs.
Newsom is under pressure from some quarters to declare a statewide drought emergency. But the administration is in favor of a more focused approach.
Newsom noted that California water supply conditions vary and said he was unwilling to take state-wide mandates.
He also mentioned the 16% decline in total urban water use since 2013, the eve of the last major drought. Californians, he said, “have a conservation attitude.”
The drought situation is particularly acute in the states of Mendocino and Sonoma, as the local water supply depends on rainfall in the Russian river basin.
The second parched winter in a row has left the region’s reservoirs in even worse condition than during the severe drought of 2012-16. The main water district has warned that Lake Sonoma and Lake Mendocino could reach historically low levels in October.
A little to the south, the Marin Municipal Water District this week banned outdoor watering during the day, washing vehicles at home, hosing down driveways, and watering grass on public central reservation.
The agency, which serves most of the towns and villages in Marin County, could pass further restrictions next month as it aims to reduce the district’s overall water use by 40%.
The picture isn’t nearly as dire in Southern California, which is usually provided by major federal and state water systems, rather than local fallout.
Southern California’s Metropolitan Water District, which imports water from the Colorado River and the North, says it has record reserves in regional reservoirs and groundwater banks – enough to carry it through this year and next.
Los Angeles, which is partly supplied by the MWD, does not foresee any shortages.
With the brown shores of the two-thirds empty Mendocino Lake in the background, Newsom signed a five-page proclamation declaring a state of emergency in Mendocino and Sonoma counties.
The document also orders government agencies to work with local districts across California to address the drought.
The state steps include promoting conservation, accelerating funding for water supply improvements, and offering technical assistance to monitor drinking water resources.
In recent weeks, Republicans in Central Valley, in particular, have urged Newsom to declare a statewide drought emergency, allowing government agencies to ease water quality and environmental standards that govern deliveries from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. , the California Aquatic Center.
But state officials have said they have enough management tools to deal with this year’s dry conditions on a regional basis.
“It’s time Californians planned to get away from drought emergencies and move into drought management,” said Karla Nemeth, director of the Department of Water Resources last month.