Be Prepared to Stop Watering, San Anselmo and Fairfax: Marin Municipal Approves Water Conservation Measures

By Bay City News Service:

The seven reservoirs that supply water in the Marin Municipal Water District are at 94 percent capacity, but the District is still implementing water conservation measures.

The District’s Board of Directors voted Tuesday to prohibit watering landscaping and irrigation with potable water during and for 48 hours after any measurable precipitation.

The District’s 186,000 customers also must limit outdoor irrigation to no more than three days a week.

“Over watering is one of the most common causes of outdoor water waste,” MMWD’s Water Conservation Manager Don Carney said. “Even the thirstiest plants in the hottest part of the summer shouldn’t need to be watered more than three days a week.“

The prohibitions, based on the State Water Resources Control Board’s regulations issued March 17, and the District’s own regulations, are contained in an ordinance the District’s Board of Directors passed Tuesday night, and they take effect immediately, MMWD spokeswoman Libby Pischel said.

Pischel said some of the state water board’s regulations are regulations the MMWD already had in place, adding that the 94 percent reservoir capacity is 2 percent more that the normal amount this time of the year.

Governor Jerry Brown’s April 1 Executive Order directed the State Water Resources Control Board to implement mandatory 25 percent water reductions in cities and towns by Feb. 28, 2016.

The regulations still must be finalized and adopted by the state water board, and the MMWD Board of Directors will likely act on them at its May 19 meeting, Pischel said.

The MMWD’s regulations already prohibit irrigation between 9 a.m. and 7 p.m., except for testing; using a hose without a shutoff valve; hosing down sidewalks, driveways and other hard surfaces; using decorative fountains that don’t recirculate water and allowing water to run off or over-spraying irrigated areas.