How will California’s Drought relief funds be spent?

Water officials in California have announced how the remainder of funds set aside for drought relief will be spent.

The Department of Water Resources announced this week that the first $200 million would be distributed from a $687 million drought relief package.

KPCC's environment reporter Molly Peterson says the money will be distributed in three installments. The final decision on how to spend that first installment is expected by Oct. 31. More than half of the funds will be coming to Southern California, with about $59 million slated for Los Angeles.

Some of that money will be put towards groundwater wells. In addition, much of the money will help with clean up and management.

“What’s interesting is L.A. is going to partner with the Burbank Department of Water and Power to make it so that they can transfer water from location to location, so that if somebody’s got pumps that are running a little bit better than somebody else’s pumps, we can pass water back and forth throughout that part of the valley,” Peterson said.