Sonoma County residents exceed water savings targets in July

The latest round of water conservation reporting indicates Sonoma County cities all exceeded the statewide savings goal of 25 percent in July and surpassed their individual, state-mandated conservation targets, as well.

State water officials singled out Santa Rosa and three other California communities for special praise, noting that Santa Rosa cut July water use by 43.8 percent over the same month in 2013. That’s 2.5 times its state-mandated conservation goal of 16 percent.

Jennifer Burke, the city’s deputy director of environmental services, said city officials were “very proud” of local residents for conservation efforts that have been ongoing for more than a year.

“We have had a long-standing commitment to water conservation and water-use efficiency,” Burke said, “and we’re very grateful we have a community that is so willing to step up.”

Also highlighted for remarkable performances were Simi Valley, Santa Cruz and West Sacramento.

Overall, Californians cut their water use 31.3 percent over July 2013, the baseline year.

Water officials said the state’s overall success is particularly impressive given the hot summer weather, in which water use typically peaks.

“Californians’ response to the severity of the drought this summer is now in high gear and shows that they get that we are in the drought of our lives,” Felicia Marcus, chairwoman of the State Water Resources Control Board, said in a written statement. “This isn’t your mother’s drought or your grandmother’s drought. This is the drought of the century.”

Locally, Rohnert Park residents used the least water in July, consuming 58.5 gallons per capita, per day.

Sonoma residents used almost twice as much. Their average daily use of 114.5 gallons per person in July means Sonoma remains the top water user in Sonoma County, as has been the case over the past year, though Healdsburg, with a per-capita figure of 113 gallons per day in July, was a close second.

The average Californian used 98 gallons per day in July, the state water board said.

Gov. Jerry Brown earlier this year ordered Californians to reduce their water use by 25 percent overall. But regulations subsequently adopted by the State Water Board established conservation tiers that took previous water savings into account.

Thus, five local communities that demonstrated conservation success early on -Rohnert Park, Santa Rosa, Sweetwater Springs in Guerneville, Windsor and Petaluma - were given conservation targets of 16 percent.

Meanwhile, Valley of the Moon Water District in the Sonoma Valley was mandated to save 20 percent; Healdsburg, 24 percent; and Sonoma, 28 percent, the highest conservation standard in the region.

Sonoma has managed to meet and exceed that goal by a large margin, even though its residential consumption rate remains high. Last month, for example, the city’s residents used 46.8 percent less water than they did in July 2013, with a cumulative savings for the past two months of 40.2 percent, the state agency said.

State officials said water savings since June, when the new targets took effect, have allowed California to squirrel away about 74.6 billion gallons of water that in a normal year would probably have gone to irrigate outdoor plants and lawns.

“Millions of conscientious Californians are the real heroes here,” Marcus said, “each stepping up to help local water resources last longer in the face of a historic drought with no certain end date.”

The city of Santa Rosa is hosting a do-it-yourself drought solutions workshop for county residents on Saturday that will include seminars on installing drip irrigation, programming smart irrigation controllers, converting lawns to drought-tolerant landscaping, using graywater, rain catchments and other topics, Burke said.

The event runs from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Santa Rosa City Hall, 100 Santa Rosa Ave. More information is at www.savingwaterpartnership.org/diy.

You can reach Staff Writer Mary Callahan at 521-5249 or mary.callahan@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @MaryCallahanB.