LA County captured enough rain this week to provide water to 65,600 residents for a year
While this week’s atmospheric river drenched Southern California with record-breaking rainfall, some water managers were busy capturing some of that runoff to save for dry days ahead. Others were busy fending off an environmental disaster. Los Angeles County Public Works captured 2.7 billion gallons of stormwater as the rain fell in sheets, public information officer Liz Vazquez told CNN in an email – enough water for 65,600 residents for a year. In all, stormwater capture facilities across Southern California snagged around 15,000 acre-feet – or around 4.9 billion gallons – for recharge into groundwater since Sunday night, according to Rebecca Kimitch, a spokesperson for Metropolitan Water District of Southern California.
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- Los Angeles Times: Pounding rains force millions of gallons of raw sewage to spill from L.A. County sewers
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- Washington Post: Record rainfall, triple-digit winds, hundreds of mudslides. Here’s California’s storm by the numbers
