There's a hugely important news story happening right now that's oddly not really being covered.
The Metro Water Authority has started draining Lake Mead.
Per a 1922 agreement if the water levels in Lake Mead are below a certain point at the first of the year CA and AZ are required to start rationing water from the Colorado river. Mead's water levels have been declining for years as both states have been overdrawing from the Colorado. Metro in particular has been overdrawing as a matter of course for decades, to the point that SoCal doesn't really have a good understanding of how much water they reliably have access to. It's actually a fraction of what Metro provides now. Since Metro has apparently decided that rationing is probably going to go into effect anyway, now that the 1st of the year has passed they're topping up every reservoir they can. That decision removed whatever slim chance there was to avoid rationing, it's all but assured to go into effect in Jan 2020. Expect a
major legal battle between CA and AZ then, but also brutal fights amongst Metro's local customers their ration of water.
Good news for us San Diegans is that we've made some preparations. We collect about 10% of our water locally, the desalination plant in Carlsbad covers about 10%, and Pure Water should cover 10% by 2021 (and 30% by 2035). Another 50% should come from a contract with the Imperial Valley Water District, which gets its own ration of Colorado river water and now has to share half with SD. So SD is going to be fighting for 20% of its water until Pure Water finishes, after which it can tell Metro to go screw itself. That will lead to a certain spike in water prices, but less than most of the LA and OC county water districts which are completely dependent on Metro's ration.