In late February, San Diego got hit with its biggest rain storm in 13 years. More than 2.3 inches were recorded at Lindbergh Field, adding more precipitation to an already wet winter season. And the city of San Diego got off easy. That storm dumped more than 9 inches of rain at the Palomar Observatory.
All that rain has brought dams close to overflowing, and the Sierra Nevada’s snowpack is so deep in places that scientists don’t have instruments long enough to measure it. Ski slopes could be open until July. And as all that snow melts, the runoff will flow south.
So that drought ... It’s got to be over, right?
Not so, perhaps.
Matt O’Malley, executive director of San Diego Coastkeeper, a nonprofit focused on water sustainability, said it’s too soon to call the drought a goner, especially in San Diego, where much of our water comes from elsewhere.
“From our perspective, the drought is not over,” O’Malley said. “If we look just at our county, it doesn’t tell the whole story, because 80 to 90 percent of our water is imported from other places. So, you really have to look at the system as a whole, and there are still places in California where folks don’t have safe drinking water, and our ground water aquifers are being overdrawn and probably won’t be replenished anytime soon, even with the heavy rains we’ve had.”
But the local water agency, San Diego County Water Authority (SDCWA), thinks we can put the historic drought in the history books. On Jan. 23 it adopted a resolution stating that the county is no longer in a drought and calling on Gov. Jerry Brown and the State Water Resources Control Board to end the statewide emergency drought status and corresponding regulations that have been in place —albeit in weakening amounts — since January 2014.
“From a water management perspective, in defining a drought we look at [whether we are] experiencing water shortages and do we have enough water to meet demand?” said Dana Friehauf, SDCWA water resources manager. “We have done the analysis, which shows that we have — even if the next three years [are] dry — adequate supplies to meet demand.”
Coastkeeper officials note that water agencies such as SDCWA bring in revenue from selling water and therefore have a financial incentive to declare that all is rosy with our water supply.
“Our water authorities rely upon wasteful water use,” O’Malley wrote on the Coastkeeper website. “The more water we waste, the more money they receive.”
Coastkeeper isn’t the only organization questioning whether the drought is over. As of March 3, the United States Drought Monitor listed San Diego County in a “Moderate Drought” and much of Imperial County in a “Severe Drought.”
So, who’s all wet?
Friehauf said the federal drought tracker uses a different set of calculations than the SDCWA. It is mostly focused on soil moisture, whereas the SDCWA takes into account alternate water sources and storage facilities.
The SDCWA has invested in seawater desalination, water recycling and long-term permanent transfers of agricultural water from the Imperial Valley and the Colorado River. In addition, the county stores excess water for use during dry periods, and that carryover storage is maxed out. Friehauf said looking only at precipitation and soil moisture, and not including these additional sources of water, isn’t accurate.
“One of the main reasons we want to see the emergency regulations lifted is because of the credibility of both the state and local agencies to our residents and businesses,” she said. “We need to be transparent. We need to be truthful with them and state that right now we are not in an emergency.”
She cited the dam overflow at Lake Oroville in Northern California as one example of why transparency is key.
“I mean, there’s just so much water right now that it’s almost a credibility issue — an honesty and transparency issue with our customers that we lift this emergency,” she said.
O’Malley sees it differently. He thinks this pattern of long periods of extreme drought interspersed with periods of heavy downpours is an effect of climate change that will only accelerate. Declaring the drought over before instituting long-term conservation plans, he said, is short-sighted.
“We were very happy to see the state water board extend the state drought regulations for the foreseeable future, and we think they should be kept in place until more long-term, sustainable or permanent conservation regulations are adopted,” O’Malley said. “The governor’s office and state board are moving in that direction, but we don’t think there should be a gap.”
So, what’s the bottom line for San Diego residents and businesses? Well, for now, the state emergency drought regulations are still in effect. What that means varies by municipality and water agency, but in general, common-sense measures such as not spraying sidewalks and driveways with water, only using hoses with shut-off nozzles and only serving water upon request in restaurants are still in place.
This is one point that both sides agree on. Friehauf said that even if the statewide drought and emergency regulations were lifted, as the SDCWA recommends, the water authority would still encourage, and in some jurisdictions even mandate, that those water-saving measures be followed.
“The water agencies here, we actually support those, because those are common-sense things, and a lot of the agencies in San Diego County already have incorporated those … prohibitions into their ordinances,” she said.
But, SDCWA would not require what Friehauf calls “extraordinary” conservation measures.
Michael Moore, owner of Pacific Landscape in Bay Ho, said he thinks businesses and residents are conserving water anyway. He said most of his clients are still requesting less-water-intensive plants and yards.
“I believe everyone is still thinking drought tolerant,” Moore said. “I still install grass for some people, but generally backyards, not front yards anymore.”
O’Malley recommends long-term thinking.
“Continue to operate as though we are in a drought,” he said. “We know climate change expects us to have longer, more frequent droughts interspersed with heavier downpours, like we’ve had now.
“For San Diego to really be a water-sustainable community, we have to use far less than we have in the past. Reuse, recycle, capture storm water when it falls — those are things we advocate for.”
