The pain of the California drought may soon lessen, thanks to the recent passage of five water bills. Senate Bills 1, 2, 6, 7 and 8 address the three-year statewide drought and ways in which water usage and management can be addressed and improved. The name of the game is infrastructure organization and more conservative water use restrictions in the long run.

As mentioned previously on the Cyber-Rain blog, the bills cover both general water use and the ways in which oversight will be put into place for the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, which has proven to be a bone of contention for many California water users, not least of which were many frustrated farmers who saw their water use cut dramatically as a result of both the drought and the fight over the Delta smelt. The delta comes up in more than half of the bills presented. The bills recommend the creation and empowering of various monitoring bodies and positions in the hope of fixing the current problems associated with the delta, including the creation of the Delta Conservancy and the Delta Stewardship Council and granting more powers  to the State Water Resources Control Board. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger recently approved all of the bills. If all goes according to plan, over $11 billion could go toward updating the state’s water infrastructure, and “urban” water users will be mandated to cut down their annual water use by 20%, by 2020.

This is one step that many hope will act as a mitigating factor in the harsh drought conditions now faced by many California residents. Across the nation, other states (including Nevada, Arizona and Florida) have had to deal with localized droughts as well. You can help lessen the effects of the drought by conserving water on a daily basis. Every action ultimately makes a difference: so the next time you have the choice between walking by a water-wasting problem (such as a leaky faucet or broken sprinkler) or fixing it, fix it!