California Governor Jerry Brown declared California was officially in a drought last month, and the Mojave Water Agency, which provides state water to Hi-Desert Water District, will not be receiving any water from its water supplier. This means that Hi-Desert Water District, along with Joshua Basin Water District and Bighorn-Desert View Water Agency also will not be receiving any state water. Managing editor Tami Roleff spoke with officials at Hi-Desert Water District earlier, who say the water district is prepared…
“Hi-Desert, we continue to conserve all the time. We’ve been fortunate that in that since we’ve begun recharging back in the mid-90s, we’ve built up approximately between five and six years of water supply.” General Manager Ed Muzik said that the five to six years of water the District has saved is in addition to the water already in the aquifer. “We did have water in the ground before we started recharging. We probably had 15 plus years … of reserves, water that was here before recharging.” So in the unlikely event that it never rains or snows again in California, the Water District has enough water to last 20 years or more. “We’ve banked more water than we’ve used since we began recharging, so at times like this when we do have a dry year, we have water available.” In addition, once the District’s wastewater project is up and running in 2016, the amount of water available to its customers will be even more. “Because we’re going to clean it and recharge it on site to the aquifer out there.”
