New LADWP Report Finds Record 13.5 Billion Gallons Of Storm Water Collected In February

A report released by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power on Sunday found that a record 13.5 billion gallons of stormwater was collected last month,

Following several years of drought of drought in the state in the 2010s and early 2020s, a wave of major storms hit the state in January and March of 2023. Reservoir and snowpack levels quickly grew, with reservoirs filling back up and snowpack levels going to over 250% of where they needed to be for the state to have adequate summer water. Last year, on the critical April 1st date, snowpack levels were measured at 237% with reservoirs being found to be near full brim, staving off drought conditions for 2023. For the first time since 2006, all water requests would be filled by the DWR. In November, the state became drought free for the first time since 2020.

While scientists warned that it was a fluke year, massive amounts of rain once again fell on California in the past several months. As of March 11th, reservoir levels, especially in Northern California, are currently at or near capacity, with snowpack levels quickly approaching 100%. However, while Northern California and Central California have generally been seen as to have enough water to stave off any signs of drought this year, Southern California remained in question for many, due to having fewer reservoirs and getting less rainfall than the Northern part of the state.

Most of those fears were laid to rest on Sunday when the LADWP announced that 13.5 billion gallons of stormwater  were collected last month, close to double that of the previous record for February from last year when 8.4 billion gallons were collected. According to LADWP officials, 13.5 billion gallons are enough water to serve around 165,000 households for a year, encapsulating a significant portion of the roughly 4 million people who are with LADWP each year.

“The City of Los Angeles captured more than 13.5 billion gallons of stormwater during the historic February rainstorms,” said Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass on Sunday. “This is great news for the city and the region, as we continue to work with the Department of Water and Power to increase our capacity to capture, clean and conserve stormwater runoff.”

Water experts echoed her statements on Monday.

Enough water for California in 2024

“She shouldn’t even sound like she should take credit for expanding water storage and capacity, but she is right in that it took several years of creating ways of expanding water supplies to make this happen,” added Jack Wesley, a water systems consultant for farms and multi-family homes, to the Globe on Monday. “During the Megadrought, we were going through a lot of expensive options like desalination or having a pipeline go from the Great Lakes to out here for water. Serious people though knew that the big things to look at were more reservoirs, increased conservation and water recycling efforts, creating more water capacity, and only relying on things like desalination as just small parts of it instead of an overall solution.”

“And we’re still building things up. We’ll have the Sites Reservoir and dam opening up in the near future. LA is going to have a major water recycling program up in a few years. There’s now a better drought system on when people need to start looking more critically at water usage. Farms are investing more and more into better watering systems. And on top of that, climate change is bringing more weather systems into California during the rainier months now. Put it all together and any future droughts in California is something we’ll be more ready for. The LADWP numbers today and the state figures last week showed that these programs are really working.”

“This was really one of those ‘everyone is pulling’ moments in California. You know, we had a drought problem, so everyone did something to give governments and water departments more time to figure this all out and build up. Both Democrats and Republicans [lawmakers] across the state united on what to do, outside of those environmental dam releases of water for fish that depleted water needed for cities and farms. That is still a sore spot for many. But, with some help from a lot of rainy weather the past few years, we’ve made it work.

“There are still many things to work out. Water releases for endangered fish will remain a controversy, as will the building of new reservoirs and dams while other dams in the state are being destroyed.  But we’re getting a handle on water storage and distribution again. We avoided drought again this year and are in good shape for preparing for the worst just in case.”

More water storage figure for the early months of 2024 are due out soon.