Amid worsening drought, SoCal water district declares supply alert

LOS ANGELES — Just one day after U.S. officials declared the first-ever water shortage on the Colorado River, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California issued a water supply alert calling on the region to conserve vital resources and prepare for continued drought.

The MWD supplies water to approximately 19 million people across six Southern California counties and is one of the largest water distributors in the nation. The decision by its board Tuesday marks the first time in seven years the agency has issued an official supply alert — the third of four escalating phases in its water supply framework.

The declaration marks a call for regional agencies and consumers to voluntarily reduce their water consumption in order to mitigate the need for more severe restrictions.

Fifty of the state’s 58 counties are now under a state of drought emergency, mostly in Central and Northern California. Officials had hoped Southern California would not see such drastic action, with the MWD reassuring residents that the region has enough supply in reserves for the year.

But after months of climate-change-driven heat waves and a winter of critically low precipitation, reservoirs across the West are shrinking at a worrisome clip, and officials are growing increasingly concerned about dwindling supplies.

“Drought conditions are worsening, reservoir levels on both of our imported water supplies — the Colorado River and State Water Project — are reaching historically low levels,” MWD spokeswoman Rebecca Kimitch said. “And we don’t know how long these drought conditions will last.”

In recent months, the largest reservoir on the Colorado River, Lake Mead, has tipped into crisis.

Water levels in the reservoir Tuesday hovered at 1,068 feet, or about 35% of capacity, according to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.