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The State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) held an informal workshop in Sacramento on Wednesday to discuss and encourage state water regulators to rescind, relax or at least rethink the emergency drought order issued by Gov. Jerry Brown nearly a year ago. The governor mandated California residents to step-up to his 25 percent cutback in water use as opposed to their water use compared to the same months in 2013. That mandate was modified earlier this year when residents were allowed to alter the cutback to 20 percent. The mandate is currently in effect through October of this year.
Water advocates provided input at the meeting and via letters submitted to the state water regulators. Staff for the water board indicated is probable that a proposal, in the form of a resolution, will be brought forth at the May 18 meeting for potential action by the SWRCB. Any action adopted by the SWRCB would be in effect through this October.
Felicia Marcus, chair of the State Water Resources Control Board, effectively summed up the intent of the meeting saying, “We need to take this moment and decide do we lift it? Do we ease it? Do we change it?”
Water advocates and local managers from throughout the state clamored for increased local control of conservation efforts based on local supplies. They asked for the state to consider lessening or the termination of the state’s emergency water consumption regulations based on the status of rain and snowpack in some parts of the state.
In opening the meeting, Max Gomberg, staff scientist with the SWRCB, shared some of the concerns and themes water managers have expressed prior to Wednesday’s meeting including: lifting the regulation where conditions justify it; tying modifications to State Water Project allocations; acknowledging customers whose past performances has reducing demand; exempting communities with sufficient supplies; and separating long-term conservation considerations from the day’s agenda of the current emergency regulations.
According to the Associated Press, David Bolland, special projects manager for the Assn. of California Water Agencies, said in a letter that continuing to ask Californians to sustain “heroic water conservation efforts” that don’t reflect healthier water supplies today could erode the officials’ credibility with residents when they’re called upon next time to make sacrifices.
“It’s time to end the State Water Board’s mandatory water-use restrictions statewide,” says Bolland who represents hundreds of urban, commercial and agricultural water districts.
Other water districts want to take a more moderate path but they are advocating for more self-control.
Darlene Gillum with the Rancho Murrieta Community Services District said, “We’re having increasing difficulty explaining to our customers why, when our reservoirs are full, why they have to continue to maintain a 25 percent reduction. We would just like the board to consider giving small water agencies the ability to make some adjustments and rely on our ability to assess our own supplies.”
SWRCB Chair Marcus said she would like to all local agencies more control but fears not all water officials would be able to provide credible appraisals of their water supplies.
Water regulators did ask if each region within the state should be administered differently based on how the five-year drought has affected their region and the status of their individual supplies.
Thomas Haglund, general manager of the Tuolumne Utilities District wrote that two High Sierra reservoirs in Tuolumne County were likely to overflow and continuing the emergency regulation in his region was “wholly unnecessary.”
Another letter submitted the to the SWRCB, representing multiple environmental entities, stated that conservation should be a way of life for California(ns). Tracy Quinn with the Natural Resources Defense Council added that some adjustment to the drought mandate was needed but cautioned against halting conservation actions and mandates in response to the protests from local districts.
