Drought Restrictions Maybe Permanent in California
California’s top water officials are considering permanent conservation rules that would outlaw hosing down driveways, over-watering lawns and running sprinklers on grassy street medians.
The proposed regulations would target wasteful water use in cities and towns statewide, permanently bringing back some of the temporary restrictions imposed during California’s record-setting 2012-16 drought.
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The State Water Resources Control Board is taking up the measures as California faces worsening drought conditions near the end of a record-warm winter. Officials said the regulations are aimed at helping to prepare for future droughts and the impacts of climate change, and at sending a message that that it’s no longer acceptable to have water overflowing in gutters.
The proposed regulations, which the State Water Board discussed at a meeting in Sacramento on Tuesday, would permanently prohibit: hosing-down sidewalks and driveways; washing a car using a hose without an automatic shutoff nozzle; watering grass and ornamental landscaping within 48 hours after rain; and over-watering lawns by allowing more than “incidental runoff.”
The state also would require that fountains recirculate water, that hotels give guests the option of reusing their towels and linens, and that restaurants only serve water upon request during a drought emergency.
The state would give cities until 2025 to stop watering grass on public street medians and landscaped areas between streets and sidewalks. There are a few exceptions under that rule, including that grass would be allowed if it’s watered with trees, if recycled water is used, or if the grass “serves a community recreational or civic function.”
The State Water Board had planned to vote on the proposed regulations Tuesday but postponed a decision to make several changes and to allow time for more public input. The board has yet to set a date for a decision on the regulations.
Some local water districts are calling for revisions to the proposal, while some water researchers say they see the new statewide rules as a positive step.
“These measures can lead to enhanced public awareness and changing public perspectives toward water and a long-term shift in our water use,” said Newsha Ajami, director of urban water policy at Stanford University.
“It is important for people to realize that it is unwise to clean the water to drinking quality grade and then waste it down our driveways, sidewalks and lawns,” Ajami said in an email. “Consider the resources we use: energy, material and money — to clean the water to such high quality and then waste it. It is like making a meal with the best ingredients and just putting it in the trash.”
She suggested the measures should be accompanied by a public education program to make sure the rules help “lead to a shifting public mindset toward water and how we use it.”
Californians coped with the most severe drought in the state’s modern history from 2012 through 2016. Gov. Jerry Brown declared the emergency over in April 2017 after one of the wettest winters on record refilled reservoirs across the state.
This winter, though, has again been very dry and warm. California and five other southwestern states had their warmest November to January on record.
Most of California’s reservoirs are still at above-average levels. But the Sierra Nevada snowpack, which normally would feed the reservoirs through spring and summer, now stands at just 20 percent of average for this time of year, and it’s on track to be among the smallest on record.
The latest map on the federal Drought Monitor website shows about 82 percent of California is abnormally dry or in a drought, with 46 percent of the state in moderate or severe drought.
“This is a very ugly picture in terms of the water supply management,” John Leahigh of the Department of Water Resources told the board during the meeting. He pointed out that three of the last five years have brought some of the state’s smallest snowpacks on record.
Climate scientists and managers of water agencies describe the situation as a “snow drought,” driven in part by winter temperatures that have been well above the long-term average – a pattern that’s worsening with climate change.
RELATED: Winter heat wave bakes the Southwest, bringing renewed drought worries
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During the past couple of years, Brown has called for making water conservation “a California way of life.” State regulators have been working on long-term strategies to help prepare for longer and more severe droughts.
The regulations prohibiting wasteful water uses call for fines of up to $500 for violations. For now, the State Water Board would have responsibility for enforcing the rules. The rules focus on water use in cities and towns, and like previous drought restrictions would exempt agricultural water use.
At Tuesday’s meeting, representatives of water districts and other groups urged the board to tweak portions of the regulations.
Tracy Quinn of the Natural Resources Defense Council took issue with the wording allowing for “incidental runoff” from lawns, saying that term should be removed or revised because “no property owner or manager has the right to waste water in this manner.”
Ashley Metzger, outreach and conservation manager for the Desert Water Agency in Palm Springs, told the board that many of the proposed measures echo rules that are already in a local ordinance.
Metzger urged the board to consider an exception matching DWA’s local ordinance that would allow driveways to be cleaned off with pressure washers or water brooms rather than hoses. She said that would make sense because in the desert “we have very fine, silty sand and it’s something that a broom won’t remove.”
As for banning the watering of grass on street medians, Metzger said her agency has some concerns about whether cities will be able to comply.
“For publicly owned and maintained areas, we’re talking about a huge cost,” Metzger said. “And while the time to 2025 is helpful, I don’t know that it will be quite enough.”
The proposed rules also include other measures that would apply during a state-declared drought emergency, including barring homeowners’ associations from penalizing homeowners who cut back outdoor watering, and barring cities from fining homeowners who let their lawns turn brown.