California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Water Supply Strategy
At first glance, Gov. Gavin Newsom's new water strategy may suggest that the project he's proposing will generate about 7 million acre-feet of new water, but a closer look shows that's not entirely true. Newsom's water strategy will add about half when each proposed storage unit is built and the proposed water recycling and desalination project is completed. Still, his plans are timely and much needed, but implementing them will require unprecedented compromise from California's powerful environmental lobby. Tanks are never completely emptied and are rarely full, especially in the case of waste water tanks. In the case of cellars, aquifers can be slowly replenished in rural areas by large expanding flood catchment basins or in urban areas by ponds. This means that water can only be extracted at a rate that can be pumped. Therefore, these storage projects could add about 1.5 million acre-feet of new water per year rather than 4 million acre-feet. Newsom's plan i