North Bay cities and water districts may challenge a state order that will ban irrigation of commercial lawns and require a 25 percent cut in water use.
"I think there is a feeling it was put together in a rush," said Jake Mackenzie, a Rohnert Park councilman. "I think we want to explore the exact reasons for the 25 percent number being chosen . . . the prohibition on irrigation of commercial turf is clearly something that was handed down with no explanation whatsoever."
Instead, they might ask for something less painful, a decision that will be made at a special meeting of a Sonoma County Water Agency committee Monday.
"It caught us all of unawares and it is not helping the discussion right now -- it came out of the blue," said Santa Rosa Mayor Susan Gorin, who is vice chairwoman of the Water Agency's Water Advisory Committee.
The meeting will "give us the opportunity to propose alternative plans for meeting the intent of the order the state is directing," she said.
The Water Advisory Committee represents the cities and districts from Windsor to San Rafael that serve 600,000 domestic and business water users.
The order was issued April 6 as part of the state's approval of a request from the Water Agency to drastically reduce summertime flows in the Russian River to conserve water in critically low Lake Mendocino for the fall chinook salmon run.
The state Water Resources Control Board at the same time ordered the Water Agency to reduce the amount of water it takes out of the Russian River by 25 percent at its Forestville pumping stations. That water is distributed to cities and districts to the south.
The state also instituted a ban on commercial turf irrigation and ordered the Water Agency to implement conservation goals of 25 percent in Sonoma County and 50 percent in Mendocino County
The state board has set a May 6 public hearing in Sacramento on the emergency order, which will be in effect from May 1 to early October.
Mackenzie, the advisory committee chairman, said at the least the cities and water districts want to know the reason behind the order and a clearer understanding of what it means.
"There's a question of why 25 percent, why not 20 percent, and what is the basic rationale? In the internal world of water people, I think the commercial turf blindsided us because it is so specific in one sense and unclear in another," Mackenzie said.
The ban on irrigating commercial turf has been interpreted by the Water Agency as applying to grass used in commercial and government landscaping that is not used by the public.
Parks and golf courses would not be affected, nor would turf irrigated with recycled water, but golf course out-of-bounds areas, business parks and median strips of roadways would.
Huppe Landscaping spokesman Todd Skelton said there already is a move away from turf and in the short term, the irrigation ban might create jobs for workers to replace lawns with low water-use landscaping. In the long term, however, it likely would eliminate maintenance jobs.
"Turf is a plant of the past," Skelton said. "It was widely used in the 1980s when we did have water, but it's a gross misuse of land in a lot of sites."
Dave Penry of Pacific Landscapes, however, said turf has benefits that are being overlooked. It absorbs greenhouse gases, has a cooling effect, filters dust and smoke from the air and promotes percolation into the ground water.
"We know there is a good amount that needs to go away, but there has been a rush to judgment about turf and its water consumption that has panicked people. We have not looked at a balanced approach," Penry said.
The amount of water available this year is limited by the low level of Lake Mendocino, which is about 60 percent full, requiring residents and agriculture users from Ukiah to Healdsburg to cut use by 50 percent.
Lake Sonoma is more than 90 percent full, but there are restrictions on how much water can be released into Dry Creek without harming the fish. Those restrictions limit water availability for Water Agency customers.
To achieve 25 percent conservation some cities and districts may resort to mandatory conservation.
"It will be a tough challenge," said Glen Wright, Santa Rosa deputy director of water resources. "It may require Stage 2 rationing. That would be mandatory: 2,500 gallons a month for irrigation and 65 gallons per day per person."
You can reach Staff Writer Bob Norberg at 521-5206 or bob.norberg@pressdemocrat.com.
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