Livermore Votes To End Drought Emergency

LIVERMORE, CA —The Livermore City Council voted last week to end its Stage 2 Water Shortage Emergency, which has been in place since September 2021. At that time, the Zone 7 Water Agency asked all Tri-Valley water service providers to reduce their water by fifteen percent.

“Last year, Livermore used 609 million gallons less water citywide compared to 2020, which is enough to fill more than 900 Olympic-sized swimming pools. We are grateful to our residents and businesses who understood the importance of water conservation during the drought and helped us achieve these remarkable savings,” Anthony Smith, City of Livermore Water Resources Division Manager, said in a statement.

In April, the board of the Zone 7 Water Agency, which sells treated water wholesale to the Tri-Valley, voted unanimously to end the drought emergency and the 15 percent mandatory conservation requirements, following one of the wettest winters on record.

On March 24, Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive order lifting statewide restrictions, and a number of local water agencies around the Bay Area, including the Alameda County Water District, the East Bay Municipal Utility District, and the Contra Costa Water District followed suit.

In September 2021, the Zone 7 Board voted to mandate a 15 percent reduction in water usage in response to severe drought conditions and reduced water supply allocations from the state. The State Water Project, which is run by the California Department of Water Resources, announced last Thursday that it is increasing allocations to 100 percent of agencies’ requested supply. The last time the state agency fully met water requests was in 2006.

During the drought, allocations dropped as low as five percent, and local water agencies turned to the local groundwater basin for supply. The Tri-Valley was successful in cutting its water usage by 15 percent from the previous year, which amounted to 1.7 billion gallons of water saved.

Mandatory restrictions are no longer in place, but Zone 7 is still encouraging residents to try to conserve water as much as possible. In a resolution, the agency asked residents to aim for five percent voluntary conservation. Conservation tips and information on Livermore Municipal Water and Cal Water rebates are available at livermore.ca.gov/save-water.

Statewide, certain restrictions continue to apply, such as bans on watering ornamental grass on commercial properties.

Newsom’s executive order still retains a state of emergency for all 58 counties to allow for drought response and recovery to continue, and preserves all current emergency orders focused on groundwater supply.