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California Drought Keeps Water Price High
Years of lower water levels caused this at Boulder Canyon in Lake Mead | Photo by AlphaTangoBravo / Adam Baker via Flickr
Years of lower water levels caused this at Boulder Canyon in Lake Mead | Photo by AlphaTangoBravo / Adam Baker via Flickr
Despite the much needed rainy season, officials say we are technically not out of a drought until water reserves are replenished. The Metropolitan Water District (MWD) has recently declared they will continue on with their water-rationing plan and sell water at full price.
“We want to rebuild our reserves before starting to discount water,” said Jeff Kightlinger MWD General Manager to The San Gabriel Valley Tribune.
Kightlinger suggested that MWD they will receive about 2.1 million of acre feet of water -- to understand that number, one acre foot is 325,851 gallons of water -- from the Colorado River and Northern California while the demand for water is about 1.9 million acre feet. The left over is expected to go straight to the reserves.
Robb Whittaker, general manager of the Water Replenishment District, understands the MWD’s need to restore their reserves before making more water available and simply suggests budgeting for more expensive water.
But that doesn’t mean Whittaker is just accepting the circumstances. He says he is looking into ways to wean his district off dependence on MWD water, according to the Tribune.
Right now an average family of four uses about 326,000 gallons of water per year. For a district like Southern Los Angeles County, Whittaker expects to spend about $13,398,000 for 21,000 acre feet of water.
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