California Imposes First-Ever Water Restrictions to Deal With Drought

nytimes.com Gov. Jerry Brown ordered mandatory water use reductions for the first time in California’s history on Wednesday, saying the state’s four-year drought had reached near-crisis proportions after a winter that brought record-low snowfalls... People should realize we are in a new era,” Mr. Brown said at a news conference here on Wednesday, standing on a patch of brown-and-green grass that would normally be thick with snow at this time of year. “The idea of your nice little green lawn getting watered every day, those days are past.”.. State officials said they were prepared to enforce punitive measures, including fines, to assure compliance, but said they were hopeful it would not be necessary. That said, the state had trouble reaching the 20 percent reduction target that Mr. Brown set in January 2014 when he issued a voluntary reduction order as part of declaring a drought emergency. The state water board has the power to impose fines on local water suppliers that fail to meet the reduction targets set by the board over the coming weeks....