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Despite dry winter and drought status, San Diego County water supply is steady

Posted at 5:47 PM, Feb 11, 2022
and last updated 2022-02-11 20:49:50-05

SAN DIEGO, Calif. (KGTV) - Despite San Diego County currently sitting at ‘moderate drought’ status and February bringing no rain so far, the San Diego County Water Authority (SDCWA) says the local water supply is safe.

According to SDCWA Water Resources Manager Jeff Stephenson, they have analyzed the current supply and feel confident that there will not be any water shortages for at least a five-year period because of their preparedness, even if drought status remains.

“We’ve spent 30 years diversifying those supplies so that we have seven, eight different sources of water in the region, so there’s no danger of running out," said Stephenson.

"That being said, we do encourage water sufficiency and conservation at all times just to make the most of what we have."

He says a small fraction of the region’s drinking water is impacted by rainfall. They have been working to create water sources that do not rely on the weather.

“We don’t get a lot of local rainfall here that we use for drinking water, we may have about 5 or 6 percent from the surface reservoirs in the San Diego region and that really varies year to year depending on the rain. But because we have so many other supplies, that’s just a small piece of the puzzle related to our water supply here,” said Stephenson.

A full breakdown of the water sources can be found here.

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