Californians could see mandatory water cuts
SACRAMENTO — California Gov. Gavin Newsom threatened, Monday, to impose mandatory water restrictions if residents don’t use less on their own as a drought drags on and the hotter summer months approach.
Newsom raised that possibility in a meeting with representatives from major water agencies, including those that supply Los Angeles, San Diego and the San Francisco Bay Area. The Democratic governor has avoided issuing sweeping, mandatory cuts in water use and instead favored giving local water agencies power to set rules for water use in the cities and towns they supply.
January through March typically is when most of California’s annual rain and snow falls, but this year those months were the driest in at least a century. Despite calls for conservation, the state’s water use went up dramatically, in March — 19% compared to the same month, in 2020 — and now Newsom is considering changing his approach.
“Every water agency across the state needs to take more aggressive actions to communicate about the drought emergency and implement conservation measures,” Newsom said in a statement.
California is in its third year of drought and virtually all areas of the state are classified as either in severe or extreme drought. Due to low water levels in state reservoirs, the state is releasing only a limited amount of water from its supplies.
Newsom, last summer, called on Californians to voluntarily reduce their water use by 15% by doing things like taking five-minute showers and avoiding baths, only running the washing machine and dishwasher with full loads and limiting water use for cleaning outdoor areas. Water used for farming isn’t counted.
Several local water officials present in the meeting said the tone was positive and focused on how all of the agencies can work together to promote conservation.
“From our perspective it works best when local water managers deal with local water supply conditions, but we’re trying to support the state, we’re trying to support the governor as best we can,” said Ed Stevenson, general manager for the Alameda County Water District, who was in the meeting.
The district gets about 40% of its water from state supplies. It’s water use is down about 7% since Newsom called for voluntary conservation.
San Diego County Water Authority, meanwhile, hasn’t needed any water from state supplies, since July, partly because it relies on a mix of other sources including a desalination plant, said Board Chairman Gary Croucher. But he said the district still has a role to play in responding to the drought. The authority is made up of 24 water agencies including the city of San Diego, where water use is down 1.3% since Newsom called for savings.
“If anybody wants to say that we’re independent and we’re OK just by ourselves, they’re fooling themselves. We really need to work together as a group of collaborators,” he said.
How soon Newsom could impose mandatory restrictions if conservation doesn’t improve wasn’t clear. Spokesperson Erin Mellon said the administration would reassess conservation progress in just “a few weeks.” She didn’t offer a metric the administration would use to measure success.