Calif. governor declares drought over

Four counties will still rely on emergency drinking water projects

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Gov. Jerry Brown declared an end to California’s historic drought Friday, lifting emergency orders that had forced residents to stop running sprinklers as often and encouraged them to rip out thirsty lawns during the state’s driest four-year period on record.

The governor’s order that keeps in place conservation measures came as a springtime storm bears down on the waterlogged state.

The drought strained native fish that migrate up rivers, killed millions of trees and forced farmers in the nation’s leading agricultural state to rely heavily on groundwater, with some tearing out orchards.

It also dried up wells, forcing hundreds of families in rural areas to drink bottled water and bathe from buckets.

Brown declared the drought an emergency in 2014, and officials later ordered mandatory conservation for the first time in state history. Regulators last year relaxed the rules after a rainfall was close to normal.

But monster storms this winter erased nearly all signs of drought, blanketing California’s Sierra Nevadas with deep snow, California’s key water source, and boosting reservoirs.

The governor lifted the drought emergency in all California counties except Fresno, Kings, Tulare and Tuolumne, where emergency drinking water projects will continue to help address diminished groundwater supplies.

Water conservation will become a way of life in the nation’s most populous state, said Felicia Marcus, chairwoman of the State Water Resources Control Board, who led conservation planning.

“There’s a greater appreciation of just how precious water is,” she said. “We’ve got to plan for longer droughts.”

New rules are expected to permanently ban wasteful practices, such as hosing off sidewalks and watering landscapes in the days after it rains.

Officials say they will work aggressively to stop leaks that waste water.

Susan Atkins of the charity Self-Help Enterprises said the drought is not over for more than 900 families who have large water tanks in their yards because their wells dried up during the yearslong drought.

Most of them are in Tulare County, a farming powerhouse in central California’s San Joaquin Valley. Atkins said she still receives calls from people whose wells are running dry and need a tank and bottled water.

“In no way is it over,” she said of the drought. “We will run out of money before we run out of people that need help.”