It may feel like it rained a lot last year – and it did – but not enough to satisfy L.A. County’s critical shortage of rainfall, officials say.
A news release issued Tuesday by Water for L.A. County indicates that the county captured nearly 12 billion gallons of stormwater over the past several months. Tuesday was the last official day of the storm season, which begins on Oct. 15 every year.
But the 11.9 billion gallons of stormwater received are still not enough.
“While the recent late-winter storms provided a much-needed boost, the region remains far below its typical annual rainfall totals,” Water for L.A. County said. “Recent storms [boosted] stormwater capture, but the region remains critically short on rainfall.”
A “stark contrast” provided by officials was the fact that the 2023-24 storm season brought 21.2 billion gallons of stormwater to the region, which was enough to meet the water needs of 2.9 million people for an entire year, officials explained.
The drop in rainfall highlights L.A. County’s water management challenges that are exacerbated by persistent drought conditions; thus, local legislators are looking to improve the system that supplies water to more than 9.7 million residents countywide.
“This year’s storm season reminds us how urgent it is to build a more resilient, reliable water system,” said Third District Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, who authored the L.A. County Water Plan. “That’s why we are advancing bold, coordinated strategies through our L.A. County Water Plan to capture, store, and manage our local water supply — especially as climate change makes weather patterns more extreme and less predictable.”
Included in the plan, which has been adopted by the Board of Supervisors and ten water agencies across the region, targets four key areas:
- Enhancing regional water supply by improving coordination and leveraging existing resources and infrastructure
- Improving quality, production and cost-effectiveness of unused groundwater supply treatment through collaborative efforts
- Ensuring equitable water service for all communities, particularly under-resourced areas
- Mitigating impact of wildfires on the county’s water supply through coordinated land and water management
“Los Angeles County’s flood control system is not just a historical achievement. It is a vital and evolving necessity for the safety and well-being of our communities and for safeguarding our local water resources, every single water year,” said L.A. County Public Works Director Mark Pestrella, whose agency will continue to increase stormwater capture efforts. “Its continued maintenance and modernization are paramount in the face of increasingly unpredictable weather patterns.”
More information about water management in L.A. County can be found by going to www.WaterforLA.com.
The Los Angeles Almanac’s rainfall data for downtown L.A. indicates that, since 2019, the city’s yearly rain totals have fluctuated greatly. It rained nine more inches in 2019-20 than it did in 2020-21 (14.86 inches compared to 5.82 inches) but increased to 12.18 in 2021-22 and more than doubled the following year (2022-23) to 28.40 inches — the eighth-wettest year in L.A. history and wettest in more than a decade-and-a-half — before falling slightly to 25.19 inches last year.
Through March of this year, the City of Angels got 7.87 inches of rain, which is below the normal cumulative rainfall of 13.15 inches by that time.
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