Agencies: State Water Conservation Mandates Pose Challenges

By City News Service

Inland Empire water agencies on Wednesday were sorting out how to implement state-imposed water conservation mandates, which one agency head characterized as unfair and “very difficult” to achieve.

Late Tuesday, the California Water Resources Control Board adopted an emergency regulation in response to Gov. Jerry Brown’s April 1 drought emergency executive order calling for a 25 percent reduction in potable water consumption throughout the state.

Under the board’s mandatory conservation measure, water agencies will be required to cut back water use by anywhere from 4 to 36 percent, based on consumption levels recorded during the same month in 2013. The new regulation is subject to a hearing before the state Office of Administrative Law, which is expected to summarily approve the action.

“Our customers have been at the forefront of water use efficiency, so this additional mandate will be very difficult to achieve,” said Perris-based Eastern Municipal Water District President Randy Record, who also serves as chairman of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California board. “With that in mind, we intend to work with our customers to do our part in helping California conserve its limited water resources.”

Jim Cioffi, vice president of the Palm Springs-based Desert Water Agency, said the new state mandate is a wake-up call that “we are in the most serious drought of our time, and it is not going to end anytime soon.”

“To do our part and achieve the reduction that the state is requiring of us, we need all Desert Water Agency customers to step up and follow the mandatory restrictions we have (already) adopted,” he said, referring to outdoor irrigation only during nighttime hours, three nights per week, and other prohibitions listed on the agency’s website, www.dwa.org.

The DWA is among those agencies facing the sternest mandate -- a 36 percent cut in customers’ water use.

The water control board relied on urban water suppliers’ monthly data on customers’ consumption levels to determine appropriate reduction targets. Officials developed a sliding scale containing eight tiers into which agencies fall depending on their customers’ habits. The 36 percent cutback goal applies if a supplier’s customers have been -- on an average per household basis -- consuming between 216 and 614 gallons of water daily.

Suppliers whose customers have averaged less than 65 gallons per resident daily fall into a lower tier, with a reduction target of 8 percent.

According to the DWA, its consumption numbers suffer anomalies stemming from the large number of tourists who visit the Coachella Valley. The agency said it will be contesting the water control board mandate using cleaner per capita data.

The Eastern Municipal Water District, which serves Hemet, Menifee, Moreno Valley, San Jacinto, parts of Temecula Valley and Winchester, is facing a reduction target of 28 percent -- a figure that the EMWD contends is the result of a “flawed regulatory approach.”

“Agencies were placed in this range by the state board using overall per capita consumption during the hottest months of the year (July, August and September) -- a metric which clearly discriminates against warmer, low-density areas such as the Inland Empire,” according to the EMWD.

Its representatives worked to no avail to convince the governor and California Water Resources Control Board Chairwoman Felicia Marcus that a “more balanced methodology” was needed to achieve “equitable” reduction mandates, according to the agency.

The EMWD said state officials failed to consider that it had reduced consumption by 23 percent since 2009 thanks to an allocation-based rate formula, more efficient distribution, recycling and incentives that promote drought-resistant landscaping.

“While EMWD is disappointed with the state board regulations ... we now need to move forward with assisting our customers in their efforts to conserve more by immediately reducing all outdoor irrigation by 50 percent and taking advantage of the numerous rebates, programs and assistance offered through the EMWD to help,” Record said.

The agency’s Board of Directors will meet Friday to hammer out specific provisions related to the new state mandate, which will be in effect for nine months. Water suppliers that fail to enact or enforce measures that promote lower consumption could be subject to penalties totaling $10,000 a day for as long as violations persist.

“We set a high but achievable bar, with the goal of stretching urban California’s water supply,” Marcus said. “We have to face the reality that this drought may continue and prepare as if that’s the case. If it rains and snows next winter, we celebrate. If the drought continues, we’ll be glad we took difficult but prudent action today.”