Admit it: You’ve been singing “Bohemian Rhapsody” in the shower again! And watering your lawn at noon. Maybe even washing your car in the driveway?
Seems like a lot of folks in California are doing the same: We’re using a lot more water each month than we did at our most conservation-conscious, according to state data.
To wit: In Orange County, we hit an average low of just 60 residential gallons per person, per day, back in February 2017, and again in 2019. We came nearly that close in February 2023 and 2024, averaging just 61 gallons per day.
But in February, OC’s taps were gushing to the tune of 75 gallons per day! That’s a leap of 25%.
And so it goes in giant Los Angeles County — from a low of 55 in 2017 up to 72 in February (31% increase); and in Riverside County — from a low of 75 in 2019 up to 103 in February (37% increase); and in San Bernardino County — from a low of 64 in 2019 up to 83 in February (30% increase).
In California overall, we clocked a low of 57 in February 2017, but were up to 71 in February (25% increase).
This is not quite good news. New conservation rules will shrink “residential indoor water use standards” in just a year and a half.
The new rules will be a big lift for California’s water agencies, especially for smaller ones such as the Trabuco Canyon Water District, said general manager Fernando Paludi.
How will we do it? “The short answer is that it will take enhanced customer outreach and financial incentives to change behavior, and use of recycled water for irrigation wherever possible.”
Why are we using more?
“The first two years followed drought and conservation regulations,” said Damon Micalizzi, spokesman for the Municipal Water District of Orange County. “Twenty-three and ’24 were very wet across the state and locally. In Orange County, people turn off their sprinklers when it’s raining.”
And they turn them back on when it’s not raining.
And it hasn’t been raining lately.
While Northern California enjoyed a juicy water season with above-average precipitation, Central California fell short, and Southern California fell way short.
The North Coast accumulated 57.5 inches through the end of March, which is 129% of average.
The Central Coast accumulated 12.3 inches, which is just 68% of average.
And the South Coast accumulated 7.9 inches, which is just a bit more than half its average, or 52%, according to the California Department of Water Resources.
“The major driver for Trabuco Canyon Water District is outdoor water use — we’re 88% single-family residential — and the first four months of 2025 have seen barely half of the precipitation over the same period in both 2024 and 2023,” said Paludi by email. “Drier means more at-home watering, especially since 100% of TCWD lies within the very high hazard (highest designation) wildfire danger area.”
Luckily for us, all that NorCal wetness has bulked up reservoirs to 117% of average, with most at near-average or above-average storage for this time of year. SoCal will be sticking its straws into those reservoirs this summer.
Groundwater, though, is an issue. Recent monitoring showed that 36% of groundwater wells were below normal.
“Although rainfall increased in 2023 and precipitation was average in 2024, California continues to face a cumulative precipitation deficit from 2000 to 2024,” the state’s hydrology study says. “While recent wet years have helped stabilize groundwater levels, California’s future will likely see continued fluctuations between wet and dry periods.”
March’s storms improved snowpack and runoff in the Northern Sierra, and the state increased allocations from the State Water Project to its many contract agencies (for much of SoCal, that means the mighty Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, which supplies 19 million people), will get 50% of their requested maximum, compared to the 20% it was slated to receive in dry January.
That could all change, of course, as quickly as the weather.
Conserve
In September, Gov. Gavin Newsom terminated the drought state of emergency in 19 counties, including Los Angeles, Marin, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Francisco, Santa Clara and Sonoma.
But no drought emergency doesn’t necessarily mean no drought. Attention, folks who brush their teeth in the shower and/or irrigate mini-orange groves! We live in a desert!
“With estimates that hotter, drier conditions could reduce California’s water supply by up to 10% by the year 2040, the state is implementing an all-of-the-above approach to safeguard and boost water supplies,” a primer from the governor’s office said in September.
That includes fast-tracking groundwater recharge projects (like the one by the Orange County Water District and Orange County Sanitation District, where clean, reclaimed wastewater is injected into the aquifer); maximizing stormwater capture; expanding storage above and below ground; and modernizing water conveyance infrastructure (through the controversial Delta conveyance project, as well as the San Joaquin Valley conveyance project).
And, also, more conservation. The State Water Resources Control Board has adopted a “Making Conservation a California Way of Life” regulation, which went into effect on Jan. 1. It establishes efficiency goals for urban water retail suppliers, and your water agency will be held to an annual “urban water use objective.”
The residential indoor water use standard dropped from 55 gallons per person daily to 47 on Jan. 1, and will dip even lower, to 42 gallons, on Jan. 1, 2027. Water agencies must demonstrate compliance annually.
It sounds dramatic and a bit intimidating, but Municipal’s Micalizzi said we’ll be OK. “In OC, we are focusing on reducing outdoor water use, which constitutes up to 68% of residential consumption,” he said. “Orange County water suppliers are adopting innovative solutions like wastewater recycling, apps for tracking usage, and AI-driven irrigation to meet state standards by 2027.”
Municipal is Orange County’s water importer, buying the wet stuff from mighty Metropolitan in Los Angeles and reselling it to local cities and water districts. Its initiatives include rebates and educational programs and have saved more than 18.5 billion gallons of water annually, he said, with support available for residents and businesses to reduce usage even further.
Tips
As we head full-swing into summer, the State Water Resources Control Board reminds us that we can keep trees and plants healthy while still conserving water.
About half of outdoor watering goes to waste from evaporation, wind or runoff-related overwatering, said spokesman Edward Ortiz, and officials again offer these tips:
Water in the early morning and evening when it’s cooler and less water is lost to evaporation; water according to the plants’ needs (example: trees prefer slow and deep watering with a soaker hose or a drip over lawn sprinklers); add mulch around plants to keep soil moisture longer; and install drought-tolerant and native plants that require little to no irrigation.
It’s amazing, actually, how green we manage to make this desert we live in. We’ve got some inscrutable data from the state on water objectives by city and by agency, and as soon as we unlock the Rosetta Stone, we’ll let you know how your agencies are doing on their way to those 2027 objectives.