State meets water cutbacks for 3rd month in a row

The State Water Resources Control Board announced California’s conservation numbers for the month of August. During August, Californians surpassed Governor Brown’s 25 percent water reduction mandate. As a whole, the state saved almost 27 percent compared to August 2013.

The average daily water use for August was 102 residential gallons per capita per day (R-GPCD) statewide. This is up slightly from July which was 98 R-GPCD.

“Millions of Californians stepped up to save water this summer and we must all keep up the good work because no one knows how much longer this historic drought will continue,” said Felicia Marcus, Chair of the State Water Resources Control Board. “With continued heat, the danger of more wildfires, and no way of knowing when the drought will end, every drop of water that remains in our local reservoirs and aquifers is insurance in case of another dry year or more.”

For June, July, and August the cumulative statewide savings rate was 28.7 percent. More than 600,000 acre-feet of water has been saved so far which equates to 51 percent of the overall goal of 1.2 million acre-feet needed before February 2016.

There is, concern, however, that conservation numbers will drop as we head into the fall months. Because Californians already cut back on their water usage during the wet months, there is little room for the level of conservation seen in the hottest dry months.

More than 400 water supplier reports were submitted for August and of those, 291 suppliers or 72 percent met or were within 1 percentage point of their conservation standard.

The city of Morgan Hill was the big winner in water savings. For the month of August, Morgan Hill reduced their water use by 42.5 percent, which is significantly higher than their 28 percent goal.

Six water suppliers were more than 15 percentage points away from meeting their conservation standard in August.