This year is shaking out to be another dry year as the winter months, when the state records much of its precipitation, did not deliver as much rain and snow as hoped.
The continuing drought means water providers across California — and their consumers — must conserve more water to avoid running out. Gov. Gavin Newsom called for a 15% decrease in water use, but only a small portion of the suppliers met that goal. Statewide, water use soared by about 19% in March 2022 compared with the same month in 2020.
The State Water Resources Control Board has been tracking how different water suppliers — and communities across California — have been conserving water. The agency’s analysis compared the cumulative water use by each supplier over eight months between July 2019 and March 2020 with use between July 2021 and March 2022.
The data table shows by how much each water agency, which includes municipalities, reduced or increased its cumulative use over two years. It includes more than 350 water suppliers across the state for which reliable and timely data were available. Negative percentage change indicates reduced use.
Less than 5% of the suppliers, most of which are located in Northern California, included in this dataset actually achieved the goal of a 15% reduction. See how the suppliers in your area fared.