As April walks through the door this morning, the bad news is the so-called rainy season almost is over.
The good news is you didn’t miss anything.
If there had been as much rain as there has been rain talk this winter and spring, you would be holding at least one umbrella as you read this.
Two men who know more about rain than almost anyone else in Culver City are Public Works Director Charles Herbertson and the extremely closely involved West Basin Warer District director Scott Houston.
They intersected for a few minutes yesterday at the Mayor’s Luncheon at the DoubleTree Hotel by Hilton.
“We still are in the fifth year of drought,” Mr. Houston said. “Northern California has gotten a lot more precipitation and snowpack than what we have experienced down here.
“Southern California certainly still is dry.”
There is hope, Mr. Houston said.
“By no means is the drought over. Nor have conservation efforts ended. But it looks as if we will have a little better allocations coming from Northern California on the state water project this year.
“The high levels of snowpacks are starting to replenish up there,” said Mr. Hoiuston.
In Culver City as elsewhere, drought-sensitive restrictions handed down a year ago remain in place. Gov. Brown recently ordered the conservation stipulations to hold until at least October.
Mr. Herbertson reminded that, via Golden State Water Co., the community’s chief supplier, Culver City residents are obligated to reduce water usage by 16 percent.
“Since the restrictions were put in,” he said, “if you average it out, we have been a little over, at 17.5 percent. However, we have been below 16 percent the last couple of months.”\
Chances of immediate future wetness are slender.
“We are at the tail end of the rainy winter season,” Mr. Houston said. “You have April and maybe a little of May.
“El Nino has petered out in Southern California. Whatever we may get won’t significantly change out situation.”
