In a major shift in policy, California’s cities, water districts and private companies will set their own water conservation targets instead of being handed assignments by the state, Gov. Jerry Brown announced as drought conditions eased across the state. The new approach, expected to see approval by the State Water Resources Board of May 18, also would require more irrigation districts to quantify water-use efficiency by growers and spell out how they will handle shortages in the future.
While localities would set their own conservation targets, based on supplies over the past three years and average demand for 2013 and 2014, they would have to report them to the state, which will keep tabs on local water use, with the potential of fines or other enforcement actions. Brown called on the Water Board to permanently bar water-wasting practices such as hosing off sidewalks, washing cars with hoses that do not have a shut-off valve, and water lawns so intensively there is run-off.
“Brown administration officials Monday said the proposed relaxation in the rules is designed to reflect an improving water picture,” said the San Jose Mercury News. Californians cut water use by 24 percent in the year ending in March compared to 2013 consumption.
In an executive order, Brown said the Department of Water Resources will require irrigation districts serving more than 10,000 acres to file water management plans, expanding a requirement that now applies to districts with at least 25,000 acres. “DWR will check the plans to ensure they quantify conservation efforts and adequately plan for water shortages,” said the governor’s office. The DWR and the state Department of Food and Agriculture are to propose the updated standards by the end of this year. As with cities, irrigation districts would be under state oversight to meet their targets.
“Californians stepped up during this drought and saved more water than ever before,” Brown said in a statement. “But now we know that drought is becoming a regular occurrence and water conservation must be a part of our everyday life.” For the fifth year in a row, some communities have limited supplies of drinking water, there is “diminished water for agricultural production and environmental habitat” and groundwater supplies are depleted, said the governor’s office.
Some 90 percent of California was in drought, with the worst conditions in the southern half of the Central Valley and the southern coast, the smallest figure since the end of April 2013, said the weekly Drought Monitor. One-fifth of the state was in exceptional drought, the most dire rating, at the start of May, down by half from January, when rain and snow began to fall on the state.