Nearly two years after California’s extreme drought situation dissipated, Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday rescinded emergency declarations for 19 counties but maintained drought orders for 39 other counties.
Newsom acknowledged conditions have improved significantly in the 19 counties and the executive orders are no longer necessary. Some of those provisions also relate to flood response following destructive winter storms last year.
The governor is maintaining a state of emergency in other counties to support long-term recovery. That means addressing depleted groundwater supplies, domestic well failures and harm to native fish in critical watersheds for farming regions. Newsom issued a new executive order that narrowly targets those issues in the Sacramento and San Joaquin river basins and the Klamath River and Clear Lake watersheds.
Newsom doubles down on drought orders targeting farm water
