Californians starting to reduce water use
By Fenit Nirappil, AP
California’s drought-stricken cities set a record for water conservation, reducing usage 29 percent in May, according to data released by a state agency Wednesday.
Regulators hope the savings will last through summer as California communities are under order to cut water use by 25 percent compared to 2013 levels. Gov. Jerry Brown announced his mandatory conservation order in April.
Felicia Marcus, chairwoman of the State Water Resources Control Board enforcing Brown’s order, said the results show it’s possible to meet steep conservation targets.
“It’s gratifying that far more communities are stepping up, and we want to see this much more through the summer,” Marcus said. “It ends up putting off the need for much harsher rationing, which has greater impacts on people and the economy.”
California is in a four-year drought that has devastated some rural communities, prompted some farmers to leave fields unplanted or tap expensive water supplies and dented fish populations. Many cities have avoided the brunt of the dry spell because of backup supplies and preparation, but the governor wanted conservation efforts ramped up with no clear end to the drought in sight.
May’s water savings were the best showing since the state started tracking conservation last summer. The report followed several months of tepid conservation, 13.5 percent in April and 4 percent in March.
Conservation may have been skewed by rain in parts of the state in May, which reduces the need to water lawns.
The data is self-reported by more than 400 California water departments and includes residential and business consumption. All regions of the state showed improvement.
Sacramento and its surrounding communities were the state’s top performer, cutting water use by nearly 40 percent.
The southern coast, where more than half of the state’s population lives in cities including Los Angeles and San Diego, conserved 25 percent in May after months of lackluster savings. Temperatures in the region were about 5 degrees cooler compared to May 2013 with an additional half inch of rain, according to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration data.
Regulators have been encouraging Californians to let their lawns go dry this summer as the easiest way to save large amounts of water and maintain local supplies if the drought continues.
The water board has assigned each community a mandatory conservation target between 4 and 36 percent, depending on how much water residents used last summer, that will be tracked between June and February. Cities that don’t meet these targets face fines or state-imposed restrictions on water use.
Some have complained these targets are unfair because it doesn’t take into account water savings made before the drought or how secure local supplies are. The city of Riverside is suing the water board over conservation, saying it has ample groundwater supplies.
Not me! My lawn is greener than edgewoods! I also installed a very high flow shower head and have been taking half hour “leisure showers”. It’s good to be king.
Glad to see some people are doing water conserrvation. Others not so much.I have neighbors who have their sprinkles on when it’s raining. I have neighbors with lawns who will water till the water runs down the street and then puddles up in the low spots.
Call STPUD at 544-6674 for good advice on saving water.
Save what’s left of our water. OLS
How about we deport the 10 million illegals in California who are stealing our water?
Until then, I’m a LEGAL resident and will use all the water I please.
Mr Mustache, your numbers on undocumented workers in California are GROSSLY over stated, and your insinuation that they are to blame for California’s water shortage is simply laughable.
Level- who said ANYTHING about undocumented “workers”. I’m talking about illegal alien Mexicans. Check your numbers again bub cause I’m right on the money. And yeah, 10 million illegals using water illegally WILL have an impact. Are you seriously THAT stupid?
Since the draconian state water regulations went into effect, it has rained about every week, hmmm….
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OsYG5emdZp8
I haven’t watched that but its reeks of BS. The amount of effort wasted on stuff like that blows my mind.
Reduce water use. OLS
Mr m, hope you drown In your coffee this morning…
MR MUSTACHE=INTERNET TROLL! He’s trying to antagonize everyone! We should try to ignore his comments and hopefully he will go away and find another site to troll in.
Al, you are correct. Blog trolls are just trying to antagonize everyone, or specific people so that other bloggers will start focusing on their rants. There was a great blog troll story on NPR that you can google. It is a fun listen and also informative about the motivations behind blog trolling. If anyone knows the identity of Mr. M they should turn it into the local police as this is one very unstable dude who seems intent on hurting bicyclists. He has also threatened other posters on this site and I know for a fact that the admin. Has blocked a few other creeps who started threatening posters. Maybe its time???
Has STPUD released their numbers on aquifer draw down levels yet???? I think we are just fine. Most of Cali is in big trouble.
If they would stop lying about this it would be easier to trust them on other issues.
sun, Lake Tahoe is not in a drought. Yes we need to conserve but they do not have the justification to raise the rates.
I always wondered how we could be in a drought given our underground water comes from the lake which is not going dry anytime soon. I recognize the importance to always conserve but it’s important that STPUD be upfront and honest otherwise it hurts their credibility.
STPUD & credibility don’t belong in the same sentence and they have never cared about it. When you don’t answer to ratepayers, you get to do whatever you please. What’s the saying? ” Absolute corruption, corrupts absolutely”.
Drought and rates are two different things. Kenny, this is the part you don’t seem to have thought through. Yes you are absolutely correct we do not have water quantity problems and we can irrigate and all the other fun stuff folks one watershed away cant do.
That has nothing to do with rates.
Rates are based on the capital improvements in the short and long term and STPUD has a lot of work to do. Plus EPA has new water standards.
The cost of water is completely immaterial to this and it is not what STPUD is selling, they rent pipe space.
Water levels are holding somewhat. Diminishing , but a slowly shrinking lake here in Tahoe. Will they stay at their current levels? Or will our small snow pack, streams and lake level keep dropping to record lows ? All this causing a dry forest and high fire danger.
Yes we do live next to a large lake. Will it continue to feed our aquafier and wells as the lake continues to shrink in size? Doubtful, in this ol’ goats eyes.
Have a good 4th of july and hope we get some rain. OLS
Moral, I got my eyes opened when I ran for the stpud board a few years ago. By now you should know that I do my homework and I also read everything completely and if I don’t understand it I go to the source and have them explain it to me. My style of writing is what irritates most of those in a position of authority. Take out the snipes, twisted ways I write and you will find the truth. If I am wrong I will admit to it. Rates are a tool that agency’s use to justify everything they do or have failed to do in the past. When are we going to learn to work with what we have and not what we might get. Planning for the future while forgetting the present which was the future when they planned in the past for what is happening now is not working. Figure that one out LOL. Thanks for the input.
Based on what I’ve read and know personally I wonder if any utility in the basin isn’t compromised by power tripping management and boards.
Kenny most folks appreciate that you are an open book. Its refreshing. But with STPUD your analysis ends with a splat. You basically accuse the employees and managers of STPUD of running the organization to maximize their salaries. That is offensive and patently untrue. If I have that wrong please correct the misunderstanding. But my understanding is probably not far from what most people think.
STPUD is like any bureaucracy, they want to keep the bureaucracy alive and healthy….I would suggest that that is good thing with a water company. We want them around tomorrow.
STPUD’s story is interesting because they play in California water but they have more in common with Nevada. Being part of California is a problem because California has mandates for water use reductions. STPUD lost most of their customers in the 1990’s and 2000’s, so they really don’t have anywhere to get addition reductions. They have reduced use, but get no credit for the last 20 years of reductions.
That means they have lots of state subsidy money at risk. The only way to keep the business, and a good business, as healthy as it is; is to force even more reductions on the last bit of the permanent population.
Bring on the current rate structure. The current rate structure is only there to get STPUD grants in the future that they really do need to keep up with regulations being passed today and to re-tool the old infrastructure.
The result is that us locals actually subsidize water infrastructure costs for second homeowners.
Frankly I think that is a more scathing story.
Kenny, “Lake Tahoe is not in a drought.” Really? And that is based on what… your opinion? If you do not want STPUD to raise rates, that’s one thing. But use a different argument because to say there is no drought is absurd.