Many Californians are taking extreme measures to conserve water in the face of the state 's historic drought . Water-conscious residents have turned to techniques that utilize so-called 'gray water ' to help them meet the unprecedented new water-use restrictions imposed by Governor Jerry Brown last week . Those techniques may appear weird to some - like the toilet that doubles as a sink and used washing machine water used to water fruit trees - but these Californians maintain it 's the inevitable future of water conservation . Extreme water saver : Robin Weld of Sacramento has installed a hybrid sink-toilet in response to the unprecedented new water-use restrictions imposed by Governor Jerry Brown in the face of the state 's historic drought . Clean water comes in through the faucet , is used to wash hands and then flows into the toilet tank to be used to flush . Robin Weld , who lives in parched Sacramento , recently took the step of converting her home 's toilet into a toilet-sink . For $ 100 , Weld purchased the sink positive , she told CBS Sacramento . It replaces the tradition lid to her toilet tank with a small hand sink . 'We 're washing our hands and then reusing that water , ' Weld said . Clean city water comes in through the faucet and then fills the tank instead of simply going to waste . On the next flush , the used hand sink water comes down into the bowl . 'The average person uses the bathroom what at least five times a day so that 's five times a day , so that adds up , ' she said . And just next door to Weld , her neighbor Chris Brown is using the left over water from his showers , laundry and other tasks to irrigate his yard . First , the 'gray water ' goes through a filtration system that Brown had installed as the drought - now in its fifth year - continued to worsen . Gray water : Weld 's neighbor Chris Brown collects all the soapy used water from this home 's washing machine 's , showers and sinks and uses it to irrigate trees and plants in his yard . A/C condensation : South of Weld and Brown , in the affluent LA neighborhood of Brentwood , Scott Mathers , the owner of Hey ! Tanks LA , has installed one of his company 's 10,000-gallon rainwater tanks under his home as well as a smaller tank to collect gray water . One place he gets water is from the condensate from his home a/c units . 'Every drop of water flows down to this pipe , runs underground now , down to the front yard , and then it 's spread , ' Brown explained to CBS Sacramento . To the south , a resident of Los Angeles ' affluent Brentwood neighborhood is going to even bigger extremes to conserve precious moisture . Scott Mathers , the owner of Hey ! Tanks LA , tells CBSLA he 's installed one of his company 's 10,000-gallon rainwater tanks under his home as well as a smaller tank to collect gray water . One of the sources of the gray water : the condensation from his admittedly large home 's air conditioning units . Mathers uses his gray water to , among other things , feed his horses . 'There are so many opportunities to harvest your water on your site , ' he says . While they may appear to verge on the fanatical now , these conservationists believe what they are doing is the new normal for the Golden State . According to the U.S. Geological Survey , California ’ s 2014 Water Year was the third driest in 119 years and the warmest on record , so perpetual wildfire season also appears to be the new normal . Gray water systems like Aqua2use filter a home 's soapy water in order to make it usable for plants and lawns . And there ’ s little relief on the horizon : The National Weather Service ’ s seasonal drought outlook predicts developing , persisting or intensifying drought conditions for most of the American West through at least the end of June . The Sierra Nevada snowpack is at 5 percent of normal , the lowest since record-keeping began in 1950 . With the wet season over and with no major rainfall in the forecast , parched conditions will continue . The Sierra snowpack is a key element of California 's water supply . About one-third of the state 's water comes from snowpack that melts in the spring and summer , recharging groundwater and replenishing reservoirs . But with hardly any snow recorded during the last survey of the year , there will be little runoff to refill half-empty reservoirs . Many Southern California cities get their drinking water from the Colorado River basin , which supplies water to about 40 million people and 4 million acres of farmland in seven states . Brown 's order called for investment in new water technologies and the streamlining of water projects such as desalination plants that turn ocean water into drinking water . Such facilities , however , are expensive to build . Unprecendented : Calif. Gov . Jerry Brown on Wednesday ordered sweeping and unprecedented measures to save water in California . No snow : Surveyors on Wednesday found the lowest snow level in the Sierra Nevada snowpack in 65 years of record-keeping , marking a fourth consecutive year of vanishing snow that California depends on to melt into rivers and replenish reservoirs .
California is experiencing one of its most extreme droughts in modern history , forcing concerned residents to react with extreme measures . Score: 6