Water restrictions coming amid drought
Bakersfield’s two largest water providers will soon implement new restrictions to head off the potentially dire impacts of an extended drought.
On Dec. 14, the city of Bakersfield and California Water Service plan to limit the days customers can use water for outdoor landscaping. Other restrictions, like no longer automatically serving drinking water at restaurants, will also go into effect as officials attempt to meet or exceed Gov. Gavin Newsom’s call to reduce water usage by 15 percent.
“We’re coming off of a dry water year — a drought year — from last year and we are several months now into our new water year, and it’s in November and we haven’t had a first snowfall,” said Art Chianello, Bakersfield’s water resources manager. “Because we’re in the second year of a drought, that puts us in our Stage 2, both for us and Cal Water. That’s a good benchmark to observe to make sure that we’re getting the word out that water conservation is important, and everyone should do their part and help out.”
For city of Bakersfield water customers, who mostly live in the western half of the city, odd-numbered addresses will be allowed to water outdoor landscaping from 6 p.m. to 9 a.m. on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Even-numbered addresses may water on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays.
For California Water Service customers, who mostly live in the eastern half of the city, odd-numbered addresses may water from 6 p.m. to 8 a.m. on Tuesdays and Saturdays, while even-numbered addresses may water on Wednesdays and Sundays.
Bakersfield also highly encourages its customers only to water two days a week, even though they are allowed to water on three.
The new restrictions are the latest and most extreme in a series of drought-mitigation measures that have been implemented throughout the year. Kern River runoff this year was the second lowest ever recorded, at 15 percent of normal. And Isabella Lake is being kept at notably low levels for this time of year, dipping to roughly 9 percent of its full capacity as of Monday.
The relative dryness is cause for concern for water managers, even if the conditions have not reached the extremes of the previous drought.
“Our team is always evaluating supply and demand, and as we all saw the drought continue to worsen through the summer and the fall, that’s why we decided that it was prudent to enter Stage 2,” said Yvonne
Kingman, director of corporate communications for California Water Service. “We know that it takes time for people to change their habits. We remember the drought from 2015. People have already retained some of those wise water use habits, but it does take some time to shift your behavior again to start saving even more water.”
Both Cal Water and city of Bakersfield customers will also be prohibited from using potable water to wash driveways and sidewalks. Shut-off nozzles on hoses will be required for residents washing their cars.
All outdoor water use will be prohibited for 48 hours after any measurable rain has fallen.
Several other restrictions will be in effect for businesses and farmers.
Limiting outdoor water use is seen as an effective way to reduce a household’s overall intake of water. Chianello said around 70 percent of a home’s water usage comes from outdoor irrigation.
“Basically, if you cut that water usage in half, you will reduce your water usage for your whole house by 15 percent,” he said.
Bakersfield residents seem to be heeding the governor’s call to action. From July to September, households in Cal Water’s service area used around 3 percent less water. But the number increased to 9.9 percent last month, according to the company.
“We continue to move in the right direction,” Kingman said. “We would like to think that education had a role to play, because we’ve been really working to get the word out about the need to conserve.”
Water-conservation tool kits are available for city of Bakersfield and Cal Water customers, and some may be eligible for rebates on high-efficiency water products.
More information can be found at bakersfieldcity. us/402/Rebates-Conservation-Kits and calwater.com.