Over and over again, drought launches California into a familiar scramble to provide enough water.
Cities and towns call for conservation and brace for shortages. Growers fallow fields and ranchers sell cows. And thousands of people discover that they can’t squeeze another drop from their wells.
So where can California get enough water to survive the latest dry stretch — and the next one, and the next?
Can it pump more water from the salty Pacific Ocean? Treat waste flushed down toilets and washed down drains? Capture runoff that flows off streets into storm drains? Tow Antarctic icebergs to Los Angeles?
The Newsom administration unveiled a roadmap for bolstering the state water supply. But the plan — which has few details, distant deadlines and scant plans for agriculture — has been met with criticism.
Every time another drought rolls around, an array of suggestions rise to the surface. We take a look at the strategies that could work — along with the more outlandish ones — and the obstacles they face.
CalMatters is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.
