Water rationing "forever" ?

Long Beach seems to be in the vanguard of lawn destruction. New weekly publication The District Weekly, made it the cover story recently.

Choice quote from the end of the article:


According to Wattier, the problem goes beyond the current drought that last year gave Southern California its driest winter in recorded history.

“Back in 2003 we lost almost half our Colorado River supply because of drought and demands from Arizona and Nevada,” he recites. “Then there was that federal ruling reduced our supply from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta by 30 percent because of the endangered smelt. Now comes news that storage in the three major reservoirs in Northern California has dropped from 90 percent of capacity in March to 42 percent today.”

Consequently, Southern California likely won’t be able to stockpile surplus water anymore, meaning that even a good rainy season this year probably won’t alleviate the crisis.

“That’s why we see this as a long-term change,” says Wattier. “It’s not something where, if we just tighten our belts and pray for rain, everything will be okay in the spring. It could be forever.”