Rain Water Capture: LA Imports Nearly 85 Percent of Its Water—Can It Change That by Gathering Rain?

An article reference from Yes Magazine.  Why is it included on this web site?  The direction of short term change towards long term goals of Los Angeles Area water independence from imported water is half way told.  It's just one journalist's research of many residential advocates  in the LA neighborhood. 

Action Item for Activitists: There are many other neighborhood groups, local to you, that you can find, make changes at home and reducing by about half your water bill.

LA Imports Nearly 85 Percent of Its Water—Can It Change That by Gathering Rain?

The urban drainage-ways of Los Angeles can never quite look like wild creeks, but restoring some of their capacity to store, slow, and filter water fixes many problems at once.
 

This article appears in Cities Are Now, the Winter 2015 issue of YES! Magazine.

In 1998, Lipkis rigged a south L.A. house with water cisterns and rain gardens, gathered a group of local officials, and staged a deluge, aiming fire hoses at the roof. The group watched with amazement as the lot soaked up thousands of gallons of water.

The Council for Watershed Health led the effort to pull apart the street and put in rain barrels, rain gardens, underground water tanks, and water-permeable walkways and driveways.

A federal court has ordered the county to clean up the Los Angeles and San Gabriel Rivers, currently fouled by the dirt, grime, and toxins that wash from streets into storm drains. Meanwhile, billions of dollars worth of city water infrastructure is falling apart and has to be replaced before it breaks down.

The city needs to both clean up its stormwater problem and find more water to drink. ... City of Los Angeles to rewrite its entire stormwater management plan by next year. The county has undertaken a study, in partnership with the Bureau of Reclamation, ... to better capture stormwater. ... The Water Replenishment District of Southern California, ... collecting more stormwater. The Council for Watershed Health ... capture 5.5 billion gallons of water per year ...

The city of Santa Monica has set a goal to use only local water by 2020. The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power estimates that by 2035, it will import just over half of its water (down from 85 percent)

Read the rest of the article at http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/cities-are-now/los-angeles-imports-nea...