As Southern Californians continue to weather winter rainstorms, water officials in Los Angeles say they have captured enough storm water to serve thousands of households across the county.
Officials statewide have long been divided on what to do with storm water. Gov. Gavin Newsom declared an emergency drought order last April for the third year in a row and most rainwater flows to rivers and ocean. The emergency drought order is still in place.
But on Jan. 11, Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) officials estimated that it captured 32,500 acre-feet of storm water between Oct. 1, 2022, and Jan. 10.
That amount comes out to about 10.6 billion gallons of water, or enough to serve 139,000 households in the county and the equivalent of filling 16,000 Olympic-size swimming pools, officials said in a press release….