State Water Board allowing local water agencies to propose conservation standards

On Wednesday, the State Water Resources Control Board voted to allow individual water agencies to propose water conservation standards based on their specific water supplies and anticipated local demand. The new ruling follows a four-year state-wide drought and previously state-imposed mandatory conservation standards.

State Water Board Chair Felicia Marcus said in her comments after the board’s vote, “We don’t know
whether this year was just a punctuation mark in a mega-drought. We don’t want to cry wolf, but we also don’t want to stick our heads in the sand. This allows us to keep our eyes open and create a meaningful discussion about local resilience.”

The new regulation, which takes effect June 1, reflects improved hydrologic conditions thanks mostly to an El Nino appearance in Northern California. Although the National Drought Mitigation Center shows more than 70 percent of California in the throes of severe, extreme or exceptional drought, many northern state reservoirs are brimming and the upper half of the state experienced above-average rain and snowfall this winter.

The State Water Board’s action ends what has been an unprecedented conservation mandate. Following his annual trek to manually measure the snowpack at Phillips Station, near Lake Tahoe on March 30, Frank Gehrke, chief of the California Cooperative Snow Survey Program, found the snow in the Sierra mountains to be at 97 percent of normal or 87 percent of its historic average. But Southern California remains caught in the on-going drought as the anticipated El Nino storms did not move from the northern part of the state to its southern counterpart.

The new regulation allows for locally developed conservation standards based upon each agency’s specific circumstances. These standards require local water agencies to ensure a three-year supply assuming three more dry years like the ones the state experienced from 2012 to 2015. Water agencies that would face shortages under three additional dry years will be required to meet a conservation standard equal to the amount of shortage. The State Water Board cites as an example “if a water agency projects it would have a 10 percent supply shortfall, their mandatory conservation standard would be 10 percent.”

“Drought conditions are far from over, but have improved enough that we can step back from our unprecedented top-down target setting,” said State Water Board Chair Felicia Marcus.

“We’ve moved to a ‘show us the water” approach, that allows local agencies to demonstrate that they are prepared for three more lousy water years. This reporting will show us what agencies plan to do, and how they do, throughout the year. Trust, but verify. In the meantime, we’ll be watching and prepared to come back with the 25 percent state mandate early next year if necessary, which we hope it won’t be.”

All urban water suppliers will be required to report their data and the calculations underlying their local water assessments and will be disclosed publicly. Any water supplier that does not submit the required water reliability certification and supporting documentation would, in most cases, maintain their current conservation requirement.

The Association of California Water Agencies (ACWA) has expressed their support for the new supply-based approach. They expressed their appreciation to the California Water Board members for considering the association’s input and incorporating their feedback from previous meetings.

“Recognizing local supply is a really big step in the right direction,” Desert Water Agency Outreach and Conservation Manager Ashely Metzger said. “We remain committed to helping our customers conserve. They have become more efficient water users, and we don’t see that changing.”

ACWA Special Projects Manager Dave Bolland said water agencies fully intend to continue sending a strong conservation message to their customers as they transition from the emergency measures to ongoing, aggressive conservation and water use efficiency.

“Agencies won’t be letting up off the gas,” Bolland said.

“El Nino didn’t save us, but this winter gave us some relief,” said Chair Marcus. “It’s a reprieve though, not a hall pass, for much if not all of California. We need to keep conserving, and work on more efficient practices, like keeping lawns on a water diet or transitioning away from them.”