Windsor enacts mandatory water conservation

<p>Beginning immediately, Windsor residents are required to be even stingier with water use.</p><p>On a 4-0 vote, the Town Council on Wednesday enacted mandatory water conservation measures requiring residents to limit irrigation to three days per week, confine watering to night and early morning hours and make sure there is no over-spray and gutter runoff.</p><p>Town officials predicted that more lawns will turn brown. And in more of a symbolic gesture, over the objections of Councilman Sam Salmon, the council agreed to turn off the fountain on the Town Green for the summer and drain it, even though it re-circulates and loses relatively little water.</p><p>The council’s resolution requires that residents east of Highway 101 only irrigate Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Residents west of Highway 101 can do so on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. There is no watering on Mondays.</p><p>“As a town, we’ve been doing really well with conservation,” Mayor Robin Goble. But she and her colleagues agreed more needs to be done.</p><p>Town officials expect that most people will do their best to comply.</p><p>Violators can expect to get a notice tagged to their door, and if they are especially flagrant water abusers, the town has the ability to disconnect them.</p><p>“Our approach is to educate people, not penalize,” said Public Works Director Richard Burtt.</p><p>Wednesday’s action comes in response to a state order that the Sonoma County Water Agency reduce by 25 percent the amount of water it pumps from the Russian River.</p><p>The state also set conservation goals of 25 percent in Sonoma County and 50 percent in Mendocino County, compared to 2004, when rain was more plentiful.</p><p>North Bay cities and water districts that are supplied by the county water agency have responded in a variety of ways to the state’s goal to reduce water usage.</p><p>Some have greater flexibility than Windsor. Santa Rosa and Rohnert Park, for example can pump water from their own wells and reservoirs and therefore reduce their dependence on the water agency.</p><p>But the state decided this year that Windsor’s own wells along the Russian River are part of the county agency’s water rights.</p><p>“If people have other sources of water not tied to the Russian River, they have the ability to use those supplies to augment any cutbacks on deliveries from the water agency. Windsor doesn’t have that luxury,” said Town Manager Matt Mullan Santa Rosa, Petaluma, Cotati and Rohnert Park are among those that have enacted voluntary measures seeking to reduce water use from between 15 to 20 percent.</p><p>Sonoma County and the North Marin Water District have mandatory conservation measures in effect that seek to cut back on water use by 25 percent.</p><p>Earlier this week, Santa Rosa and county water officials said water conservation efforts appear to be having an impact.</p><p>Santa Rosa officials said overall water use in the city was down almost 30 percent in May, compared to May 2004, and because of that more stringent, mandatory measures may be avoided.</p><p>And the county water agency reported that so far this year, its Russian River diversions are down 26 percent compared to five years ago.</p><p>Windsor officials are frustrated they do not get credit for the large amount of recycled wastewater used in turf and landscape watering.</p><p>That includes irrigation at more than 450 homes in the Vintage Greens development, along with the Town Green, Windsor High School, the golf course and parks.</p>