Newsom unveils plan to store more water as California gets drier

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) on Thursday released a plan to capture and store more water as the state faces a hotter, drier future, the Los Angeles Times reports.

With California expecting an estimated 10 percent decrease in its water supply by 2040 due to rising temperatures and decreasing runoff, the plan calls for accelerating infrastructure, including recycling more wastewater and desalinating seawater and brackish groundwater, and reducing water use by 8.4 million households.

"The hots are getting a lot hotter. The dries are getting a lot drier," Newsom said. "We have to adapt to that new reality." The plan calls for expanding below-ground storage capacity by four million acre-feet to help prepare for the expected loss of up to nine million acre-feet per year.