The latest statewide water conservation numbers are improving, having more than doubled from May to June, and the Bay Area is leading the way.
In June, statewide water consumption dropped by 7.6 percent compared to June 2020, whereas in May Californians reduced water use by just 3.1 percent, according to a report to the State Water Resources Control Board.
“The second round of the drought emergency regulations took effect at the end of May and the numbers seem to indicate we’re seeing some positive impacts from that,” said Marielle Pinheiro, a data specialist with the Water Board’s Office of Research, Planning and Performance.
The emergency regulations require all of the state’s 436 urban water suppliers to implement Stage 2 Water Shortage Contingency Plans, which vary from supplier to supplier but can include things like fines or additional charges for over-consumption of water, as well as incentives for conservation and for replacing water-intensive landscaping.
For example, the East Bay Municipal Utility District, which delivers drinking water to 1.4 million customers in Alameda and Contra Costa counties, mandated a 10 percent water use reduction, tightened restrictions on outdoor water use and reinstated its Excessive Use Penalty Ordinance, which includes fines of $2 for every 748 gallons of water used above a 1,646-gallon threshold, among other things.
The district says it has recorded water use reductions of 6 percent in May, 12 percent in June and 16 percent in July compared to 2020.
“Customer savings figures are moving in the right direction, but we know we must do more,” said EBMUD General Manager Clifford Chan in a news release.
“EBMUD asks its customers to continue to conserve, and if they are able, make more changes to make long-term impacts to their water use habits,” Chan said.
Also, in June the Water Board banned the use of potable water on “decorative or non-functional grass” at commercial, industrial and institutional properties across the state.
“I think the numbers are definitely heading in the right direction,” said Dave Eggerton, executive director of the Association of California Water Agencies.
“It’s positive and only getting better,” said Eggerton, whose association represents hundreds of water systems that collectively deliver about 90 percent of the state’s water to residential and commercial users.
Water Board chairman Joaquin Esquivel said June’s conservation numbers are heartening since they come on the heels of two months, March and April, that saw statewide water use numbers increase by 18.7 percent and 17.8 percent.
“What is important to see is that turn around,” Esquivel said. “We did pass in late May our regs, all water agencies are now at Level 2 of their Water Shortage Contingency Plan and we began banning the irrigation of non-functional turf.”
In June, all of the state’s 10 hydrologic regions reported a decrease in water use, with the Bay Area heading up the list with 12.6 percent, followed by the North Coast and San Joaquin River regions with a bit over 10 percent each.
The South Coast region, which includes Los Angeles and San Diego and is home to more than 55 percent of the state’s population, recorded a nearly 6 percent drop in water use.
From July 2021 to June 2022, the state’s cumulative water use dropped by 2.7 percent compared to 2020, still well below the 15 percent conservation goal set by Gov. Gavin Newsom.
“We met with the governor recently and he made it very clear that he wants to see this happen,” Eggerton said. “It’s a critical part of our response to the drought.”
Eggerton also said the state needs to continue investing in water storage and delivery systems in order to build resiliency in the face of ongoing temperature rise and precipitation declines.
“We really need capture as much (water) as we can when we do have wet years so we’re in a better position to deal with the challenges we have now,” he said.
So instead of doing the right thing with dams and desalination plants we are told to shower less and make our houses look like we live in the desert. Or we could stop building more homes and apartment building. It’s not that we have less water it is we have more places using water.
San Diego County has a very large population but if you look at a draught map you will see they have just a slight draught. That is because they have the state’s largest desalination plant. Politicians never try to solve problems they try to manage them and that usually means the public suffers.
If we don’t get flooded next year we will all start smelling pretty bad and we will be drinking imported bottled water.
I would like to make another point about politicians who refuse to solve a problem without using half measures. Highway 37 is a commuter route in Marin county. Heavily used two lane road. Hours of backup time daily. So instead of turning this road into a four lane highway for which there is plenty of room they are going to make it a three lane toll road where they will have to move a movable barrier every day. This is madness.
Ricardoh, I remember when Highway 37 was a three-lane road, with each direction having the center lane in specified sections of the road. But so many people were illegally passing, the road was called Blood Alley. That’s when they should have widened the road into four lanes, but they decided to turn the entire center lane into a barrier.
Madness is accurate!
Honestly, it feels like our politicians enjoy making our lives more difficult with all these mandates instead of building water storage and desalinization plants.
Cowellian Environmentalists are the ones stopping the progress of this state. That whole area around 37 is supposed to be some kind of wild bird sanctuary and tidal ponds. There is more than enough room there for everything but environmentalists have the last word.
Newsom tried to get a desal plant built in the LA area. It would have been large and great. The environmentalists shut it down and Newsom didn’t even put up a fight. Just walked away.
We don’t have any new dams because environmentalists won’t allow it. Now we have high price gas because the environmentalists won’t allow the means to make the US energy independent again. Along with the high price gas comes inflation. Environmentalists say little if anything about the building growth though.
Water rates are going to need to go up “temporarily” to offset the loss of revenue from lower usage…
And what do we get in return for being good children for saving?Higher rates you political morons.
In June the CC County planning department and board of supervisors approved 125 more housing units on just under 6 acres at the old site of the Palmer School. It’s between Oak Road and Jones Road just to the south of the Pleasant Hill BART station. The school buildings were demolished a few weeks ago and grading has started on the new development.
That project alone likely will use up all the water we could save, and more.
https://sfyimby.com/2021/11/new-townhome-project-proposed-at-oak-road-in-walnut-creek-contra-costa-county.html
https://sfyimby.com/2022/03/plans-approved-for-2740-jones-road-in-walnut-creek-contra-costa-county.html
+1 ….Newsom is allowing hundreds of thousands of new housing units to be constructed this year! with no plan for water other than telling everybody else to cut back…. use some of that $97B surplus of our tax dollars to build desalination plants and build rain retention facilities for when it does rain…. does he? nooooooo Almond, Walnut and grape growers still get all the water they want even though most of the nuts go to China and India and the growers of these are still adding tens of thousands of new planting acreage this year!
My water bill has gone up, but there is nothing else we can do except skip showers, don’t flush and let our garden die. Not going to happen.
When we water our garden/grass, no water hits pavement, rock or anything that is not intended. It is also done in the middle of the night to prevent evaporation and every area that can be is covered by mulch to help keep the water until the plant consumes it. All showerhead, toilets, etc are low flow. We have a cover on our pool to prevent evaporation. We capture rain water to use for irrigation when it rains.
We have done our part, it is now time or our political leaders to do theirs and build dams/desalination plants etc. I wonder what actions and reductions the political leaders have done at their own homes? Could we see a report that shows they only showed for 5 minutes? Or that they have low flow toilets?
The verified fact checkers, confirmed by experts, have indicated that wearing two masks while taking a shower saves water.
this_that
two maks .. but I only need to wear them for two weeks, right?
Didn’t California make it illegal to reclaim rainwater? SMH!
Nope, not conserving at all. Nothing has ever changed us in the amount of water we use.
The state has had 50+ years to figure this out since I can remember rationing at my parents house when I was a kid in early 70s that I’ve seen and they just turn their heads to spend billions on things like the stupid bullet train to nowhere.
This state has had ample time to fix the problem so we’ll use water as damn much as we please.
Btw our whole city everyone has nice green lawns, full pools and still taking showers everyday so I find it had to give the bay area leads the way in conserving.
Since the cry “if it is brown flush it down” they have done nothing.
@Ricardoh – If it’s Governor Brown then flush it down. There, I fixed it for you but it still seems like a waste of water.
What happened to all of the bond money from the water bonds we passed? Nary any storage has been built since Los Vaqueros was raised over 10 years ago. California has experienced many multi century droughts in the past 100,000 years. We could be in one of those, We need storage to offset the really dry years, but nothing is getting done! The population has doubled with no increase in water supply, we will be constantly be short potable water if nothing is done! Your government and Tax Dollars at work.
Hey Newsom, stop importing and stop building. Until then Suck it!
Ooh…leading the state. That’s great! Do we get a participation trophy?
Newsom tells us to conserve water as he directs thousands of taxpayer housing units being built for his future voting base. In the mean time we barely have enough water to take a decent shower. At this rate, he won’t leave enough water to put out the state’s forest fires! What a joke!