California seeks to store rain runoff amid Colorado River talks
After watching billions of gallons of rainwater wash away into the Pacific, California is taking advantage of extreme weather with a new approach: Let it settle back into the earth for use another day. As the latest batch of storms lashed the Golden State, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed an executive order this week to hasten projects that use rainwater to recharge aquifers, reversing decades of an emphasis on channeling it into drains and out to sea. … Even apart from the order, the state had already committed $8.6 billion to the effort. The order to allow water agencies to do a better job of capturing runoff came amid a storm season that has dramatically refilled reservoirs drawn down by a drought that produced the driest three years on record.