California Governor Gavin Newsom has unveiled a new water strategy that plans for a future with 10% less water due to acidification and shifts the emphasis from conservation to capturing more water that otherwise flows out to sea.
Climate change has contributed to more severe drought but has also set the stage for more intense flooding when rain does fall, as was demonstrated last week in California’s Death Valley, one of the hottest, driest parts of the United States.
The state’s infrastructure was never built for such abundance, so Newsom is setting priorities around capturing and storing more stormwater while increasing supply through other means, such as recycling and desalination.
