LOCAL WATER USE UP DESPITE APPEAL
Governor’s request for voluntary 15% reduction falls flat even in drought
Despite an appeal by Gov. Gavin Newsom for all Californians to voluntarily cut water use by 15 percent, Southern California has lagged in conservation efforts and even increased water consumption slightly in San Diego and Los Angeles, according to newly released data.
More than two months after Newsom stood by a depleted reservoir in San Luis Obispo County to make his plea, figures released Tuesday by the California State Water Resources Control Board show that conservation efforts have varied widely from north to south.
On average, Californians reduced water use by just 1.8 percent statewide during July as compared to the same month last year. In Southern California, however, water use hardly changed among the region’s 19.7 million residents.
According to the new data, water use across much of Southern California dropped by just 0.1 percent overall, and rose 1.3 percent in San Diego and by 0.7 percent in Los Angeles.
Those figures contrasted sharply with regions to the north, where the effects of drought have been felt more heavily. Water suppliers in the North Coast region reported a 16.7 percent decrease in water usage, while San Francisco Bay Area water use dropped 8.4 percent.
Areas that met the governor’s conservation target included Mendocino and Sonoma counties
regions that Department of Water Resources Director Karla Nemeth described as being in the “bullseye for the drought early on.”
We’re going to need all Californians to conserve, and conserve a lot more,” Nemeth said.
Newsom called for a voluntary 15 percent reduction in water use on July 8.
State water officials have been tracking monthly data for more than 400 water suppliers statewide, including most of California’s cities, towns and water districts. The statistics for July included data reported by 378 of these water suppliers.
The state water board will be presenting the data each month as the drought persists — much the way it did during the last major drought from 2012 to 2016, when the state imposed mandatory conservation measures.
Water officials say they’re putting a stronger focus on the need for saving water as California deals with a year of unprecedented heat and extremely dry conditions that have sent some reservoir levels falling to record lows. Nemeth said all regions of the state need to do more to save water, including Southern California.
In response to the July numbers, San Diego County Water Authority Board Chair Gary Croucher issued a statement Tuesday highlighting the region’s “extraordinary job” of cutting water use by nearly 50 percent in the last thirty years. He said investments in regional facilities and diversification of the water supply are why the region has “reliable supplies” now and in the future.
“While we should all be proud of our long-term track record of conservation, we need to do more to help eliminate water waste during this epic drought,” Croucher said.
Monthly water use is typically highest in the hot summer months, when plants in yards take up more water and evaporation increases.
E. Joaquin Esquivel, chair of the state water board, said he looks forward to seeing what the numbers will show in August.
“Looking at the last drought, it takes time for conservation to boot up,” Esquivel said. “We’re going to have to continue to dig in deeper.”
Laurel Firestone, a member of the water board, said it’s simply time for everyone to do their part.
“And that means now,” Firestone said. “Treating this like the crisis that it is requires us all to step up far and above what we’re seeing in this first month’s report.”
Some of the hard-hit water suppliers in the North Coast region have adopted mandatory water restrictions and other measures to reduce their water footprint.
“They didn’t get the precipitation up there, and they moved pretty quickly,” Nemeth said of the northern counties. “And we’re pleased about that, and we’re pleased that it’s been locally led.”
Californians dramatically reduced water use during the 2012-16 drought, when thenGov. Jerry Brown imposed a mandatory 25 percent cut in urban water usage. Many conservation habits have remained since then. Statewide, per capita water use decreased 16 percent between 2013 and 2020, according to state water officials.
“In the last drought, we saw an incredible response from Californians,” Esquivel said. “That’s going to be the continued spirit that we’re going to need in the months ahead.”
The extreme drought has left California’s large reservoirs, from Lake Oroville to Folsom Lake, at some of their lowest levels ever.
The snowpack in the northern Sierra Nevada, which feeds the state’s reservoirs, peaked at 72 percent of average in April, and then rapidly melted during the hottest spring on record. Extreme heat has baked much of the West and left parched soils, which have soaked up a portion of the runoff and left far-below average flows in the state’s rivers.
“What transpired this year was truly that climate change is here and our models regrettably don’t best capture the scenarios and circumstances we’re in,” Esquivel said. He said the diffi— cult water situation has required changes in how state officials plan water supplies.
This year, cities and water districts have obtained just 5 percent of their full water allotments from the State Water Project, which delivers water with pumps and canals from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to Southern California. Next year, managers of water districts anticipate that those allocations could be reduced to zero.
The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, which delivers water to cities and smaller districts, declared a water supply alert in August and urged people to conserve.
The MWD stores water in reservoirs supplied by the State Water Project, and it also relies on water from the Colorado River. Federal water managers have declared a first-ever water shortage on the Colorado River, and if water levels continue declining as projected, those shortages could begin to shrink the amount of water flowing to Southern California within the next few years.
For now, Colorado River water accounts for more than half of Metropolitan’s total water supplies, and the district is storing water from the State Water Project in reservoirs that remain at higher levels than the severely depleted reservoirs in Northern California.
“We do want to give water districts an opportunity to work with their customers to do it voluntarily,” Nemeth said. “We want those local boards to be in a position, if they need to go to mandatory [water restrictions], to do that at the local level.”
She noted that the state has begun to relaunch a drought campaign called Save Our Water, offering information about how people can conserve, including steps like replacing thirsty lawns with drought-tolerant plants.
The MWD and other water suppliers also offer rebates to help homeowners with the costs of taking out grass and putting in plants that consume less water.