Wet winter mostly wasted in California
by Hannah Fry and Alejandra Reyes-Velarde, Los Angeles Times
Feb 20, 2019
4 minutes
LOS ANGELES - California's wet winter has dumped at estimated 18 trillion gallons of rain in February alone. But much of it is simply going down the drain.
In what has become a source of much concern in a state prone to droughts and water shortages, the vast majority of rainwater in urban areas flows into storm drains and is eventually lost to the Pacific Ocean.
"When you look at the Los Angeles River being between 50 percent and 70 percent full during a storm, you realize that more water is running down the river into the ocean than what Los Angeles would use in close to a year," said Mark Gold, associate vice chancellor for environment and sustainability at
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