Governor Gavin Newsom said Thursday that California must do more to expand its water supply by building new reservoirs, desalination plants and recycled water facilities to deal with worsening droughts and ‘water shortage due to climate change.
Newsom released a 19-page plan that directs state agencies to speed up permitting and provide greater financial assistance to local water projects as the state grapples with its eighth year of drought in 11 years.
The plan sets out several goals and targets, many of them aimed at capturing more water in wet years to save during dry years.
Goals include doubling the amount of recycled water produced in the state by 2030, increasing stormwater harvesting by 77% by 2030, and increasing the height of the San Luis Reservoir dam to the East of Hollister. Also included: Fast-tracking seven storage projects that have funding approved from Proposition 1, a 2014 water bond, such as raising the height of the dam at Los Vaqueros Reservoir in the county of Contra Costa and build a major new $3.9 billion project, Sites Reservoir, in Colusa County.
“Climate change means drought won’t just last two years at a time as has historically happened,” Newsom said in a statement. “Drought is a permanent feature here in the American West and California will adapt to this new reality.”
Without action, state officials said a warmer, drier climate could reduce California’s water supply by as much as 10 percent by 2040, roughly 6 to 9 million acre-feet. The plan aims to expand supply by 5 to 7 million acre feet by 2040.
It also calls for increased water conservation, setting a goal of $1 billion in state and local spending by 2030 to expand programs that pay people to voluntarily replace lawns with water-efficient landscaping. water
And it directs the State Water Resources Control Board to develop mandatory conservation budgets for cities and water agencies next year if California faces another dry winter.
Newsom was scheduled to discuss the plan during a visit Thursday morning to Antioch. On the waterfront, crews are building a $110 million desalination plant to turn saltwater from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta into enough fresh water to meet about 30 percent of the city’s annual needs . Much of the funding comes from state loans and grants.
Dry landscapes, wildfires, and water restrictions have increasingly become the norm in California over the past 20 years.
After three straight dry years, 97 percent of the state was in severe drought Thursday and 45 percent in extreme drought, the third and fourth most severe drought categories, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor, a federal report weekly .
The state’s largest reservoir, Shasta, near Redding, was only 36 percent full Thursday. Its second largest, Oroville in Butte County, was 40 percent full. Lake Mead, the massive reservoir behind Hoover Dam in Nevada, which is a key water source for millions of people from Las Vegas to Phoenix to Los Angeles, was only full on 27 %, its lowest level since 1937, when it was first filled.
Polls show Californians are increasingly worried. A poll last month found that one in four Californians name water supply and drought as the state’s top environmental problem, and 63 percent say water supply is a big problem in your region
However, water experts say Newsom can only do so much for himself.
“The Schwarzenegger administration and the Brown administration and the Newsom administration have committed to accelerating water projects,” said Jeffrey Mount, UC Davis professor emeritus and senior fellow at the water center from the Public Policy Institute of California.
“But there hasn’t been a dramatic increase in speed,” he said. “Don’t get rid of the Clean Water Act, the Endangered Species Act, and our water rights system. All of these laws are designed to make us stop and think about what we’re doing to avoid causing harm. And there are thousands of other laws. Laws are designed to prevent something bad from happening, but they also stop good things from happening.”
California has done little to expand its water supplies in recent decades.
Many of the state’s new groundwater and off-stream reservoir projects, such as Los Vaqueros or Diamond Valley Reservoir, a huge man-made lake built in the late 1990s in Riverside County by the Metropolitan Water District, have been built by local agencies. Two months ago, the California Coastal Commission rejected plans to build a $1.4 billion desalination plant in Huntington Beach, citing its potential impact on the environment and increased water costs for residents of low income
Newsom’s plan calls for the Legislature to make changes, specifically reforming CEQA, California’s Environmental Quality Act, to make approvals easier for water and flood projects.
But previous attempts to rewrite the powerful law, signed in 1970 by former Gov. Ronald Reagan, have fizzled. Environmental groups strongly support its rules that require detailed project studies, public hearings and transparency. Labor and business groups have also used CEQA lawsuits to slow projects they oppose on grounds such as not hiring union workers or providing new economic competition to existing businesses.
Mount said Newsom setting specific goals could generate some political momentum.
“These will be goals without consequences,” he said. “Nobody’s going to hang if they don’t comply. But they can bring public attention to the problem.”
SHASTA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA – AUGUST 5: As California’s ongoing drought continues, houseboats are tied to Lake Shasta, California’s largest reservoir, which was only 36 percent of capacity Friday August 5, 2022. (Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group )