This is suddenly new either, but I personally have heard the warnings about California for years, and water is perhaps the top reason why I resolved years ago not to live there. Plus this will also hurt unless a great deal of our fruit growing relocates or the drought eases, whichever comes first.
My wife and I bought a condo in Chula Vista in 1978. The homeowner's association was already making plans for water restrictions. The LDS temple in San Diego originally had a nice fountain in the architect's concept drawings. That was 1993. The fountains were removed from the final implementation due to water restriction concerns. This is all "old hat". It was an inevitable consequence of allowing unlimited growth of the population and building with reckless abandon to cater to the demand. It's a desert. The last generation of visionary planners built the water infrastructure for 20 million people. The current population exceeds 37 million and that is exacerbated by destruction of some of the infrastructure implemented to support the 20 million target.