Beaumont's Water Agency Misses State-Mandated Target

By PAUL J. YOUNG, City News Service:

Only two water agencies in Riverside County were able to meet or beat the state-mandated water conservation goals that took effect last June 1, state officials announced this week.

Of more than 20 agencies reporting, the city of Coachella and the Lake Hemet Municipal Water District exceeded cumulative conservation targets in the June-February period, according to the California Water Resources Control Board.

Coachella came out two-tenths of a percentage point ahead, while Lake Hemet was a full 9.8 percentage points above the state mandate.

The majority of water districts were more than 5 points below compliance standards -- and in some cases, more than 10 points off, according to newly released data.

Regulators based savings targets on 2013 consumption levels in each district. Reduction requirements were anywhere from 4 to 36 percent, depending on the conservation formula applied by the water board, which mandated cuts in consumption in response to a drought-related water emergency declared by Gov. Jerry Brown a year ago.

The city of Blythe missed the mark by the widest margin, recording only a cumulative 13.3 percent drop in consumption compared to 2013. The municipality is in the 32 percent compliance category, but slashed usage by less than half that amount.

State officials said the following entities failed to meet their state- mandated cuts by 10 or more percentage points:

• Beaumont-Cherry Valley Water District
• Coachella Valley Water District
• city of Corona
• Desert Water Agency
• Eastern Municipal Water District
• city of Hemet
• city of Indio
• Mission Springs Water District
• city of Norco
• the city of Perris

Riverside was off by a cumulative 7.2 percentage points and continues to forge ahead with a lawsuit seeking to have itself removed from the state's compliance list, arguing that the conservation standard was derived arbitrarily and shouldn't apply when a municipality has its own groundwater sources and doesn't depend on imports. State officials counter that local water storage is not a license to bypass conservation goals.

Not all agencies were counted in the state's tally, including the Idyllwild Water District, the Salton Community Services Water District and the San Gorgonio Pass Water Agency. According to the Water Resources Control Board, those agencies serve too few customers -- less than 3,000 each -- and hence are allowed to be excluded from consumption reports.

According to regulators, just over 400 water agencies statewide collectively realized a 23.9 percent cut in water use between June and February, altogether saving 1.19 million acre-feet of water -- just below the governor's conservation goal of 1.24 million acre-feet for that time period.

Brown issued an executive order last April mandating a 25 percent cut in water use statewide. With no sign of long-term drought relief, the governor extended the duration of the order beyond Feb. 29 to Oct. 31 of this year, meaning ordinances intended to curb water waste will remain in effect.

Rainfall from this winter's El Nino pattern has brought some parts of Northern California up to seasonal averages, but nowhere close to the levels needed, according to state officials. Southern California's winter precipitation has been well below expectations.

"We are in better shape than last year, but are still below average in most of California," said board Chairwoman Felicia Marcus. "We need to keep up our efforts to conserve the water we've gotten. We can better tune up and adjust our emergency rules once we see our final rain and snowpack tallies in the next few weeks."

The water board's ordinances, enforced by local agencies, require cutbacks in outdoor residential watering and limitations on how some businesses use water.