I live in So Cal also. In addition to my wort chiller I use a pre-chiller. Williams brewing used to have em, but could only find them on rebel brewer now.
Thanks. I just ordered a little sub-pump and some hose to hook up a recirc system with my immersion chiller. I'm gonna use ground water through it until I fill up an ice chest then hook up the pump hose and run that as a recirculating system. My biggest thing is water conservation. I use the run off on my veggies and citrus trees but anymore than 10-15 gallons and I feel supremely wasteful.
My routine for the past three years has been to fill buckets with chilling water. I stop chilling when I run out of buckets. I use the hotter buckets for cleaning and the later buckets for laundry. This only works with top load machines. Someday I will use it to water a garden, but first I need a garden.
I've brewed at a buddies house where I dropped my sump pump into his pool. That worked very well and I could let it run for as long as I wanted.
I also use a prechiller during the summer. I add the ice after filling three buckets. I use that bucket as extra thermalmass in my ferm freezer.
The drought is so crazy. I remember when it was dangerous to float the rivers down stream from the dams due to being at capacity.