Gov. Jerry Brown’s latest executive order provisionally extends California’s drought restrictions into next fall and calls on the State Water Resources Control Board to consider adjusting the rules in the coming weeks.
So far, input from local water agencies and environmental think tanks has been diverse and sometimes conflicting.
“What is the state staff going to do with the information?” said Charles Gibson, a board director at Orange County’s Santa Margarita Water District. “I think anybody you ask is going to say they’re concerned…. There’s this great uncertainty.”
To address districts’ unresolved concerns, the board convened a group of several dozen water officials and experts. Beginning in August, the group set out to consider the next steps for the emergency regulations, which expire Feb. 13.
Two weeks ago, Brown ordered the water board to extend the rules until Oct. 31 if drought conditions continue through January, which the water board’s Max Gomberg said is a “near certainty.”
Those conditions could change rapidly this winter depending on the effect of an El Niño that is expected to dump rain on much of the state.
Brown’s order “really gives us the flexibility we need … to look at the winter conditions and make a determination” about whether to raise or lower the 25% water-savings target, said Gomberg, the board’s climate and conservation manager.
Exactly what the regulators will do is unclear. In letters to the water board and interviews, officials at local water districts asked for many of the same allowances they called for in the spring.
Many districts asked to receive adjustments or credits based on their local conditions and for their investments in developing new water supplies.
For example, the nation’s largest seawater desalination plant, in Carlsbad, is on the verge of starting commercial operations, supplying the San Diego County Water Authority.
Under the current state regulation, the use of water from new supplies counts the same as any other drinkable water produced by an agency. Sandra Kerl, deputy general manager of the water authority, said that’s not fair to ratepayers.
“The only answer being that you use less is untenable,” she said. “It needs to be a combination of conservation and sustainable supply development.”
Other agencies are more concerned about weather than water supply. Warmer, drier areas with higher evaporation rates require more water than cooler, wetter areas to maintain similar landscapes, officials said.
In Sacramento, Regional Water Authority Executive Director John Woodling said he is seeing landscapes and trees die.
“The same burden looks different in inland versus coastal areas,” Woodling said.
Still others say the drought regulations have created a financial strain on their districts because conservation results in lower water sales. Some officials fear that continuing the state regulation will impinge further on local control and have opposed making any of the drought rules permanent.
The board will hold its first public workshop Dec. 7 to discuss changes to the regulation, but staff is unlikely to make any formal proposal until mid- to late January, Gomberg said. The board must approve the proposal with a vote that could come in February or March.
http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-water-conservation-20151126-story.html