Despite heat, North Bay reduces water use

<p>Despite the weekend heat wave, North Bay residents are doing a good job cutting back on water use and meeting conservation goals, officials say.</p><p>“Overall water use has been lower than previous years, despite temperatures that peaked at 107 (degrees) in our region,” said Brad Sherwood, a spokesman for the Sonoma County Water Agency. “It was a pleasant surprise.”</p><p>The water agency serves about 600,000 people, including in Santa Rosa, Rohnert Park, Cotati, Petaluma, Sonoma, the Valley of the Moon, North Marin and Marin Municipal water districts.</p><p>Santa Rosa officials said Monday they also are pleased with the reduction in water consumption in the city.</p><p>“Our customers are doing a fantastic job of reducing water use,” said Glen Wright, Santa Rosa’s deputy director of water resources.</p><p>He said that this spring, residents managed to significantly cut back on water use compared to 2008 when water conservation also was stressed.</p><p>Compared to May of 2008, water use was down 25 percent last month. That includes water from the Russian River delivered by the county water agency, as well as the city’s own system of wells.</p><p>“Our customers are going above and beyond what we are even asking them to do,” Wright said. Because of the success with voluntary efforts, it appears mandatory conservation measures can be avoided, he said.</p><p>“We are getting a water conservation culture,” Wright said, explaining that people are irrigating outdoors more wisely and taking advantage of rebate programs for appliances such as water-efficient washing machines.</p><p>Because of a succession of dry years, the Sonoma County Water Agency is under orders by the state to cut the amount of water it pumps from the Russian River by 25 percent compared to 2004, a year of average rainfall and water use. There are also general conservation goals of 25 percent in Sonoma and 50 percent in Mendocino County.</p><p>Sherwood said that from April 1 through Friday, the water agency used about 26 percent less from the river than it did five years ago for the same period.</p><p>“I’m optimistic. That’s a great sign,” he said. “It shows you that going into summer we are on par to meet the goal.”</p><p>Over the past decade or so, he said historical demand has been around 75 to 80 million gallons per day in the summer. But this weekend it was never over 57 million gallons each day.</p><p>“It tells you contractors (cities and water districts) are doing a good job getting the conservation message out to customers and they themselves are cutting back,” Sherwood said.</p><p>He said many cities and districts have their own local supplies from wells and reservoirs. The Water Agency won’t know until sometime in early July how much the drop in use of Russian River water river use can be attributed to cities and water districts switching to alternate sources. The state’s conservation goals for the area apply to all water sources, not just the Russian River.</p><p>Officials caution that there are many dry, hot ahead and water users need to remain vigilant.</p><p>“You can still irrigate your landscape. Just be smart about it. Irrigate at night, when not as much evaporates,” he said.</p><p>“This is a small test, only two days of extreme heat,” Sherwood said of the past weekend’s encouraging statistics. “We hope this is a good forecast for the summer.”</p>