Governor Declares End to Statewide Drought Emergency
Otay Customers Encouraged to Use it, Not Waste It
Due to exceptional water conservation and record-setting winter rain and snow, Governor Edmund G. Brown formally declared the end of the drought emergency on April 7.
It is important for Otay customers to be aware that the San Diego region’s water supply reliability is stronger now than when the drought began due to the efforts of San Diego County water ratepayers. That includes you! Thanks to Otay customers and others throughout the county, ratepayers have invested more than $3.5 billion over the past three decades to advance the region’s drought resilience – for instance, with new water storage capacity and new locally controlled, drought-proof water supplies from the Carlsbad Desalination Plant.
A snow-covered Sierra Nevada mountain peak to the northwest from the Phillips Station meadow where the California Department of Water Resources conducted its third snow survey of the winter 2017 season. Photo taken March 1, 2017.
Dale Kolke / California Department of Water Resources.
The county’s residents and businesses also beat the state’s emergency water-use reduction mandates during 2015 and 2016, and they continue to use less water than they did in 2013 even though drought conditions have ended. Since the State’s conservation mandate began in June 2015, Otay customers have saved an average of 18 percent more water compared to 2013 water-use totals. Thank you for doing your part during the drought!
The District worked with its wholesale supplier, the San Diego County Water Authority, to use this balanced approach of water-use efficiency combined with supply investments to serve its customers during the drought, and it should be part of any statewide drought-management efforts in the future.
The State Water Resources Control Board will still require water districts to report urban water use and prohibitions on wasteful practices. These wasteful practices include watering during or after rainfall, hosing off sidewalks and irrigating ornamental turf on public street medians. So in other words, use the water you need, but do not
waste it.