Water restrictions OK’d for Santa Clara County

Valley Water District urges steep cutbacks in landscape irrigation

Santa Clara County on Wednesday became the most populous county in California to impose mandatory water restrictions, saying that the worsening drought poses a significant threat to the local groundwater supplies that provide nearly half the drinking water for 2 million residents.

On a 7-0 vote, the Santa Clara Valley Water District board declared a water shortage emergency and set a target of reducing water use 33% countywide from 2013 levels, a year the state uses as a baseline. The district,

a government agency based in San Jose that serves as the county’s wholesale water provider, also urged cities and private water companies who buy its water to put in place water wasting rules and other mandates, including limiting lawn watering to no more than three days a week. As in the last drought, the rules are likely to include monthly water allocations for each home beyond which financial penalties would apply.

“We’re seeing the perfect storm building up and it’s right in front of us,” said Rick Callender, CEO of the district, which is also known as Valley Water. “We cannot recommend that we gamble, or keep our fingers crossed.”

The last two winters have been the driest since the 1976-77 drought. Santa Clara County is in worse shape than many other counties because its largest reservoir, Anderson, near Morgan Hill, was ordered drained last year by federal officials to rebuild the dam to improve earthquake safety. The county suffered another hit when federal agencies announced they would be cutting water allocations to cities by half from the Delta due to a meager Sierra Nevada snowpack.

To make up for the loss, groundwater pumping will need to increase, said Callender. And if next winter is dry, groundwater levels could drop to emergency standards, increasing the risk of the ground sinking, which can lead to cracked roads, sidewalks, home foundations and pipes.

Cities and private water companies across Santa Clara County, called “retailers” because they send water bills to customers, are expected to pass new drought restrictions in the coming weeks and months in response to the district’s vote Wednesday.

Those rules are expected to mirror many that were in place during the 2012-16 drought, when county residents cut water use 28% from 2013 levels. The new rules could be more strict because consumers will now be asked to reduce 5% more.

Cities and private water companies have not said yet how they intend to comply with the district’s request. But there were calls Wednesday for them to coordinate with each other to avoid a confusing patchwork.

“We can have customers with one set of rules on one side of the street and another set of rules on the other side of the street,” said Roger Lee, director of public works for the city of Cupertino. “It gets very difficult with messaging.”

Water district officials said their primary goal is to reduce landscaping and lawn watering, which totals up to 50% of urban water use during the summer in many communities.

“For right now we are concentrating mostly on outside irrigation,” said Aaron Baker, a chief operating officer at the district. “We are not looking to hinder public health and safety, or responsible amounts of water for commercial applications.”

Foreshadowing the public debate to come, numerous people asked a variety of common questions that arise in droughts.

“If we have more people living in our home, will there be per person issues that come into play?” said Tessa Woodman, a San Jose resident. “That’s important, to allot water based on per person.”

Bud Burkett, a resident of the Villages Golf and Country Club in San Jose, said the development’s 4,500 residents receive a water bill only once every two months. Many are elderly and can’t read their water meters, which are under steel covers in the ground, he said.

“Things break. Pipes break,” he said. “We may have excess water use in the community that we didn’t count on.”

In 2015, San Jose Water Company, a private company that serves 1 million people in San Jose, Los Gatos, Saratoga and other communities, put in place drought allocations that allowed each home the same amount — 13 units of water a month — during July, August and September. Each unit is 100 cubic feet, or 748 gallons.

Ratepayers were assessed a penalty of $3.56 per unit for exceeding their allocation. Homes that used more than the 2013 baseline of 19 units were given a $7.12 per unit surcharge.

San Jose Water has not said yet how it plans to meet the water district’s new targets, although as a private company, any drought rules or surcharges must be approved by the California Public Utilities Commission, which could take several months.

“Our customers have always responded to calls for water conservation with a sustained and concerted effort,” said Andy Gere, the company’s president. “It’s a strong partnership and San Jose Water is ready to help as we face another drought.”

During the last drought the company and the water district received complaints about the surcharges — which were driven by former Gov. Jerry Brown’s executive order requiring water companies and cities to cut water use by varying percentages.

“The biggest complaint we got was from large property owners,” said Barbara Keegan, a water district board member. “They thought because they had larger yards they should be allowed to use more water. I’m very sympathetic to keeping trees alive but during a drought we all have to suffer, and the health and safety of people is more important than ornamental landscaping.”