California Water News Daily Your Source For Water News in California
Two water agencies that serve inland Southern California are concerned about the State Water Resources Control Board adopting an extension of Governor Jerry Brown’s mandatory water conservation. Eastern Municipal Water District (EMWD) and Western Municipal Water District (WMWD) believe the revised conservation regulations ease burdens on water agencies, but they do not go far enough.
Both EMWD and WMWD feel that the new regulations do not take into account local circumstances or fully credit local agencies on their water supply investments.
“Our customers have worked hard to be efficient and Western has long been an early adopted of a diverse array of efficiency measures, ranging from the implementation of water-budget-based rates and development of a drought-resilient water supply in our region,” said WMWD’s general manager John Rossi. “Our District, along with agencies in our region, has been leading the way for water savings in the state. We would like to have seen our prior conservation and investment in supply infrastructure more fully considered when extending the mandates.”
According to EMWD, Riverside County’s largest water supplier, the formula the State Water Resources Control Board uses to calculate a water agency’s conservation number is unsound.
“There does not appear to be a technical or logical rationale why adjustments are discounted or capped by the SWRCB. If an agency’s circumstances are such that an adjustment or credit is warranted, then the full value of that adjustment or credit should be given,” said EMWD’s general manager Paul Jones.
“Our bigger concern is that these regulations will be used as a roadmap for future droughts and may provide other regions disincentive from making their own local investments in fear that they will not receive credit for past conservation and sustainable supplies when they need it most,” Jones explains.
