Los Angeles’ 100 biggest residential water customers have cut back on their wasteful ways, but they still pumped enough during the fifth year of California’s crippling drought to supply the needs of 2,800 ordinary households.
The powerful storm that pounded California recently seemed like the break the state so desperately needed. But it wasn’t enough. In fact, there is probably no storm capable of washing away California’s water woes, scientists say.
Tanks are now the primary source of water for more than 540 households in Tulare County, the epicenter of California’s four-year drought. In the poor, unincorporated community of East Porterville, the outlook is particularly bleak.
By denying the severity of the drought, Nevada ranchers fought to reopen public lands that had been closed to grazing. But some of these same ranchers have collected drought subsidies from the government.
