Stay thirsty my friends.
Seriously, stay thirsty, because Californians must reduce water consumption by 20 percent by 2020.
That's what the Municipal Water District of Orange County (MWDOC) is reminding everyone about, as well as offering ways to reduce water use.
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The state Legislature in February 2010 adopted a comprehensive water package requiring urban retail water suppliers to achieve a 20 percent reduction in per capita water use by 2020, as well as an interim 10 percent reduction by 2015.
In May 2012, the Fountain Valley-based MWDOC Board approved the development of a Master Plan that would help Orange County meet or exceed the state-required per capita water use reductions. That led to a year of collecting opinions and recommendations from cities, the public and water districts, culminating in the negotiated Master Plan's adoption by the board this past Sept. 18.
By following the plan, it is estimated Orange County will save enough water to supply nearly 13,000 single-family homes per year, or 4,300 acre-feet per year (about 44,000 acre-feet of water over the lifetime of the measures). The expected value of the water use efficiency savings benefit is approximately $47 million, which is not bad when you consider implementing the Master Plan will cost $14.6 million, according to MWDOC.
So what does this mean for you specifically? Check out www.mwdoc.com/services/wuemasterplan to find out.
Email: mc****@oc******.com. Twitter: @MatthewTCoker. Follow OC Weekly on Twitter @ocweekly or on Facebook!
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.