What is the 20-Gallon Challenge?
Why should I conserve water?
Why are our supplies being cut?
Do you still have more questions? Click here to get them answered.
What is the 20-Gallon Challenge?
The 20-Gallon Challenge is a call for residents and businesses to reduce our region’s water use on average by 20 gallons per person, per day.
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Why should I conserve water?
We need your help saving more water now because
California is in a drought and our supplies are being cut.
Recent court-ordered restrictions on water deliveries from
Northern California are limiting water supplies and rapidly
depleting water storage levels across much of the state. To
make matters worse, the court-ordered restrictions are making
our state system for managing water more vulnerable to weather
changes. This will make it more difficult to cope with and
recover from dry conditions in the years ahead.
 The impact of these supply restrictions already is being felt by thousands of growers and agricultural water users in San Diego County. About 5,000 customers who subscribe to a discount water program run by the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California had those supplies cut by 30 percent as of January 1. Growers are stumping trees or finding other ways to cut production to comply with these restrictions.
The San Diego County Water Authority and its 24 member agencies are working hard on securing and developing reliable new water supplies to meet future needs. But now, our region’s best defense against mandatory water use restrictions is YOU. Your efforts to save water make a difference by helping us keep as much water in storage as possible as our supplies are constrained. And saving more water isn't difficult. There are easy residential and business tips and incentives and programs to help you.
Thank you for your efforts to save water!
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Why are our supplies being cut?
Last year, about 34 percent of water used in San Diego County came from the State Water Project (SWP). The SWP conveys runoff from the Sierra snowpack in Northern California through the Sacramento River/San Joaquin River Delta (Bay-Delta) to the Harvey O. Banks pumping plant, which pumps the water south to 25 million Californians in communities from the Bay Area to San Diego.
In August 2007, a federal judge ordered pumping restrictions for the SWP and the Central Valley Project (a federal water project) to better protect Delta smelt, a threatened fish.
These restrictions went into effect in late
December 2007. These restrictions have severely reduced the
reliability of this important water supply. The Metropolitan
Water District of Southern California, the San Diego County
Water Authority’s main water supplier, estimates these restrictions
will reduce its Bay-Delta water deliveries by as much as 30
percent in 2008. As of June 2008, the restrictions have cut
almost 500,000 acre-feet of water deliveries to SWP customers
around the state – the loss of enough water to meet the annual
needs of more than 1 million families.
These restrictions to protect Delta smelt may continue long-term, and additional restrictions on SWP pumping have been ordered. In February 2008 the state Fish and Game Commission ordered more pumping restrictions to protect another fish, the longfin smelt. Additional court restrictions to protect other fish species are possible.
The Water Authority is working with other water agencies, the Legislature and the Governor on long-term solutions to the Bay-Delta’s infrastructure, legal and environmental problems that will enable the SWP to safely and reliably convey water supplies to the San Diego region.
For more information about our water supplies, click here.
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