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California Governor Gavin Newsom on Tuesday issued a statement extending the drought emergency statewide, asking residents to redouble their water conservation efforts in an extremely dry year when wildfires devastated large swaths of the state.
The proclamation allows the State Water Resources Control Board to ban practices that waste water, such as washing sidewalks and driveways. said in a newsletter. Eight new counties have been added to the emergency, including Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego, and San Francisco.
The governor’s office said the move follows the second-driest year on record, with near-record low storage in California’s largest reservoirs. In July, Mr. Newsom issued an executive order It asked residents to voluntarily reduce water use by 15 percent compared to 2020, and by August, officials said the state had reduced urban water use by 5 percent.
“As the western U.S. faces a potential third-year drought, it is critical that Californians across the state redouble our efforts to conserve water in every way possible,” Mr. Newsom said on Tuesday.
a report this month From the California Department of Water Resources He said the water year 2021, which runs from October to September, was the driest since 1924. The report also noted that just under 12 inches of rain and snow were measured, while California typically receives an average of 28 inches of precipitation. Cities like Sacramento and San Francisco received precipitation well below the average annual precipitation.
severe drought conditions, worsened by climate changecontinues to affect much of the western United States and even the Northern Plains, causing headaches for farmers and ranchers and paving the way for large wildfires to easily spread. There are currently eight major wildfires burning in California. dixie feverThe second largest city in state history, burned more than 960,000 acres, destroyed 1,300 buildings and killed a firefighter, According to a New York Times wildfire tracker. Since the beginning of the year, wildfires have been raging across the state. more than six million acres burned.
And while droughts are not uncommon in the region, scientists say climate change in the form of shifts in warming temperatures and precipitation is making the situation worse.
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