Wednesday November 30, 2022
California Department of Water Resources —
As directed by 2018 legislation, the Department of Water Resources (DWR) today submitted a first report to the State Water Resources Control Board summarizing how urban water districts assess the adequacy of their supplies over the next seven months. Broadly, the assessments show the importance of conservation by individual Californians to help suppliers meet demands through June 30, 2023.
In this year’s assessments, urban water suppliers indicate that they will rely on either continued conservation or more aggressive actions to meet demand through June 30, 2023, if dry conditions persist. They report that they can ensure adequate water supplies through water-saving strategies, such as requiring customers to limit outdoor water and providing leak detection and repair services.
Since 2022 is the first year that urban water suppliers are required to submit an Annual Water Shortage Assessment, this year will serve as a baseline to evaluate if urban water suppliers are accurately assessing their annual water supply and demand. These annual assessments submitted by local agencies are intended to help state and local water suppliers better prepare for current and future droughts.