District adjusts rules on water
Some measures stay, others are rescinded
Some water use restrictions that were imposed on most Marin County residents during the drought last year are now set to become permanent.
The Marin Municipal Water District Board of Directors voted unanimously on Tuesday to continue limiting sprinkler use to two days per week, which is down from three days it allowed before it adopted its drought restrictions in 2021. Drip irrigation will be allowed three days a week. All pool owners in the district must also have a pool cover.
These rules will be part of the district's list of permanent conservation rules that include prohibitions of washing down sidewalks, driveways and other hard surfaces by direct hosing; watering lawns between 9 a.m. and 7 p.m.; and us
ing a hose without a shutoff nozzle.
“We want to recognize that despite the recovery for our local supplies, much of California does remain in a severe drought,” the district's water efficiency manager Carrie Pollard told the board.
At the same time, the board also voted to rescind several rules that have been in effect for the past year. These include a ban on residents washing their cars at home, the prohibition of landscape planting for new water service connections and an irrigation rule limiting golf courses to only watering tees and greens. Sanitary districts are being asked, but not required, to use recycled water when possible to flush out sewage systems.
The rule changes come
after the Marin Municipal Water District and the 191,000 residents in central and southern Marin it serves came close to the possibility of running out of water. Following two dry winters in 2019-20 and 2020-21, the district had forecast it could deplete all seven of its reservoirs by mid-2022 and was preparing to build a $100 million pipeline across the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge to pump in Sacramento Valley water.
Unusual downpours from October through December rescued the district by nearly refilling its reservoirs. The reservoirs are now about 90% full.
The board has since been working to reconcile what rules should remain in effect given its flush reservoir supplies and what rules should become common practice given the vulnerability of its water supplies in future droughts.
On Tuesday, there was some debate about how extensive
the district's regulations should be. Board Director Jack Gibson objected to what he described as potential overregulation.
“Our community saves water,” Gibson said during the meeting. “They understand that, they got the message. Let them choose the way they can best do it.”
Other board members said the new permanent rules are meant to produce water waste such as evaporation of pool water.
“We have a charge to provide reliable water supply,” Director Monty Schmitt said in response to Gibson's comments. “In order to do that we absolutely need our customers to be partners in this, in conserving how much water we use and to use it wisely.”
The Marin Municipal Water District's water supply is somewhat of an outlier compared to other Bay Area and California counties, which have been implementing stricter conservation rules
in recent months and weeks as the drought continues into its third year. In Northern California, the first three months of this year were the driest three months of any year since rainfall records began in 1849.
More than 95% of the state is in a severe drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor published by the federal government and the University of Nebraska.
Last year, Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered a voluntary 15% statewide reduction in water use compared to 2020. Residents fell far short by cumulatively conserving by 6% from July 2021 through January, according to the State Water Resources Control Board.
The Marin Municipal Water District set its own target in April 2021 of a 40% collective reduction given its supply concerns. Marin ratepayers conserved about by half that amount for most of the year, though still significantly more than compared
to the rest of the state.
Newsom then issued an executive order in late March requiring all urban water suppliers to institute their stage 2 conservation measures as part of their drought contingency plans. These plans require suppliers to create six levels of drought response actions, with each level including more intensive conservation rules.
For Marin Municipal Water District, the stage 2 level calls for 20% voluntary conservation, increased public outreach efforts and initiating water waste patrols, for example.
The district's latest report showed it conserved by 12% in March.
The neighboring North Marin Water District has continued to call for a 20% reduction in water use from the 60,000 residents in its Novato service area because of ongoing drought conditions.