Why experts say California should stay stingy with water as drought continues

Water suppliers are loosening water-use restrictions and reporting they’ll have enough water to meet demand for three years.

But is that a good idea in the midst of an ongoing drought?

Although the end of the state’s mandated water conservation targets is intended to give agencies more flexibility, some experts worry customers are being sent the message it’s no longer vital to conserve.

Water officials expect people to keep conserving after suppliers were allowed to set their own water conservation goals for the rest of the year.

Felicia Marcus, who heads the State Water Resources Control Board, said Friday that the savings might be somewhat lower now that the state is no longer in such “extreme peril” after the winter’s significant snow and rainfall levels.

Yet she’s alarmed because some suppliers believe their ability to meet customers’ water needs means they don’t need to keep conserving. Conservation is just the “right thing to do” as drought cycles may become longer than the normal three to four years, she said.

“I have a lot of faith in the public. I think the public gets it,” Marcus said. “It’s appropriate to relax the standards locally — it’s not appropriate to say, ‘Go use water with wild abandon.’”

‘Proactive with conservation’

The state’s roughly 400u2009water suppliers were required to set their own water conservation goals and provide supporting documentation by Juneu200922, but some submissions were incomplete as of Friday, state water officials reported.

The information is expected to be posted online within the month. The new, self-imposed targets will be in effect through January.

Califoians continued to cut back on water use in May, even after state water officials stopped imposing their own conservation targets on suppliers.

State water use decreased by 28u2009percent in Mayu20092016 compared with Mayu20092013, and water use decreased by 24.5u2009percent from Juneu20092015 to Mayu20092016 compared with Juneu20092012 to Mayu20092013, when emergency conservation mandates were put in place.

Suppliers such as the Metropolitan Water District of Southe Califoia say they’ll keep pushing customers to reduce consumption. The agency told its 26u2009public agency clients by Juneu200915 they expect to have enough water to meet demand.

Metropolitan officials are confident after spending nearly $1u2009billion to develop diversified, drought-resilient local supplies and increase conservation since 1991. Water storage capacity grew from about 1u2009million acre-feet to about 5.8u2009million acre-feet by 2011, said Metropolitan board Chairman Randy Record, also president of the Perris-based Easte Municipal Water District board.

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In April, Metropolitan’s board agreed to spend $100u2009million for conservation programs and water-savings rebates during the next two years.

“We’re going to continue to be very proactive with conservation,” he said.

Some are skeptical

Kurt Schwabe, a UCu2009Riverside professor of environmental economics and policy and research fellow at the Public Policy Institute of Califoia Water Policy Center, said the state’s stringent, rigid conservation mandates made sense during the drought’s critical peak a year or so ago because developing strategies for all 400u2009suppliers would have taken too long.

“The amount of precipitation we received in the north gives us a little more breathing room to step back and consider more effective and flexible approaches,” he said.

Since 2008, the state already has directed suppliers to reduce water use by 20u2009percent by 2020.

Yet Natural Resources Defense Council leaders are skeptical after so many water suppliers are setting conservation targets at zero when the developed parts of the state — from about Sacramento to the Mexican border — remain in exceptional drought.

They believe suppliers are sending customers a confusing message, the council’s senior policy analyst, Ed Osa, said.

“We just don’t think it’s prudent to be discarding conservation messaging or conservation targets at this time,” Osa said.

Marcus said being able to meet customers’ water demands should allow conservation targets to be set at lower rates, but not at zero.

Osa urged suppliers to provide financial incentives to replace water-guzzling landscaping and inefficient irrigation systems and components such as timed controllers.

Functional turf still is needed for sports, picnicking and active play. But there are plenty of places — such as highway medians, parkway strips and parking lot borders — where plants should be native or adapted to Southe Califoia’s climate.

Replacing uecessary grass in public spaces will save water and educate business and homeowners about attractive alteatives, Osa said.

State officials will watch water use through the summer to see if stricter regulations are needed. The state is moving toward everyone using water more prudently all the time, Marcus said.

“That gives communities more resilience in the long run,” she added.

BY THE NUMBERS

• Number of water suppliers in the state: About 400

• Decrease in water use in May 2016 compared with May 2013: 28%

• Decrease in water use from June 2015 to May 2016 compared with June 2012 to May 2013: 24.5%

• Increase in water storage capacity by the Metropolitan Water District of Southe Califoia from 1991 to 2011 (in acre-feet): About 4.8 million

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