Californians cut water use 31 percent in July, beating target

“This isn’t your mother’s drought or your grandmother’s drought, this is the drought of the century”.

July was the second straight month that residents met the conservation mandates without the state imposing fines. Based on this late-stage effort to address the state’s broken roads, perhaps in 40 or 50 years after the Central Valley takes on the appearance of the Atacama Desert, will future California leaders be standing in front of the media decrying how previous generations neglected water infrastructure.

State officials say the strong figures show residents are beginning to understand the dire need to cut back on water use due to the drought. To reach that goal, the state water board assigned water districts individual reduction targets of up to 36 percent from 2013 usage levels. All water saving percentages are comparative to July 2013 water use data.

California American Water Company, Sacramento, which serves Antelope and surrounding communities, and the city of Woodland posted the largest water savings in the region during July. Huntington Beach residents cut by 25.7 percent, ahead of the 20 percent goal; Manhattan Beach was down 23.4 percent, besting the 20 percent goal; and Inglewood reduced by 15.3 percent, ahead of the 12 percent mandate.

Gov. Jerry Brown has ordered cities to use 25 percent less water.

While industrial use is high, the district’s 183 residential customers had actually conserved by 14 percent in June and 18 percent in July. “California now has groundwater management for the first time in its entire history, so we are much more aggressive” than in years past, he said.

“We’re doing a lot of stuff we didn’t do previously”, Meadors said, adding it was too soon to know which, if any, options could be presented to the city water board September 9.

The state water board issued figures for each community. The report estimates that “water transfer” to non-farm users boosted total agricultural revenue by $66 million, making up for unproductive farms.

Highlighting the savings, the state’s public and private water suppliers published a list revealing which cities were the most successful savers, as well as those who missed their targets. This is after they managed to achieve a 27 percent savings in June. “There is still some savings to be gained”, he said.

This saving rose to 31.3% in July, with a cumulative saving for both months of 29.5%, the State Water Resources Control Board reported on Thursday. Aside from “California gold”, in the San Francisco area there was also “Nozzle Your Hose; Limit outdoor watering” and “Gardens Gone Wild; Use native, water-efficient plants”.

Regulators called the Coachella Valley Water District the comeback kid for saving about double in July over June, hitting 41 percent conservation.

However, watering restrictions in Albuquerque will not end soon, said Katherine Yuhas, the conservation officer for the Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority.

Meanwhile, in early August, Los Angeles dropped 96 million “shade balls” into the 175-acre Van Normal reservoir in order to preserve its water supply.