North Coast braces for water limits

A move by the state to impose mandatory water conservation measures on residents around California is poised to trigger tough new restrictions on landscape irrigation and other outdoor water use to preserve dwindling supplies in the now extended drought.

The proposal, which focuses largely on urban water users and will affect residents up and down the North Coast, calls for mandatory monthly reporting by most water suppliers to monitor each community’s overall consumption and per capita water use.

It also includes provisions for hefty fines for individuals who defy water restrictions.

The shift toward mandatory conservation reflects the ongoing severity of California’s drought, as well as fears that next year may be no better, said Felicia Marcus, chairwoman of the state Water Resources Control Board, which is set to consider adopting the measures next week.

The proposal also reflects the failure of voluntary conservation efforts to reduce water consumption by the 20 percent goal set by Gov. Jerry Brown in January. A voluntary survey of water suppliers in April put statewide reductions at only 5 percent.

“We’re trying to ring a bell and bring people’s attention to not wasting a precious resource when we do not know how long this drought is going to last,” Marcus said.

Local water and utility officials on Wednesday were still digesting the state proposal, which would require them to invoke existing local plans for mandatory water conservation.

In Santa Rosa, that includes measures such as limited irrigation hours and citywide water patrols, according to David Guhin, the city’s utilities director.

Plans for other cities and water suppliers call for different measures, a flexible approach that state officials said they accepted.

If approved, the state order is expected to go into effect around Aug. 1.

Local water suppliers would have to be in compliance within 30 days.

The issue of enforcement, however, raised particular questions for local officials given the state’s plan to fine water wasters $500 for each day if they violate any of four state restrictions on outdoor water use.

Marcus was not able to say Wednesday who would be responsible for assessing fines and collecting them, though she suggested that a variety of local government personnel might be able to do it, including law enforcement or public works personnel.

She said the state would also be able to impose the fines.

Local officials also voiced concerns that their jurisdictions have already curtailed water use in recent years and would thus find it more difficult to meet the state’s reduction targets.

Rohnert Park City Engineer Mary Grace Pawson said the state plan would punish communities that already have been stressing conservation.

“I think everybody’s biggest concern is that it be practical, that what they ask us to do can be practically implemented,” she said.

Municipal water supply officials in Sonoma County were planning to meet Monday to discuss the proposal and how it might be implemented locally, and to craft some kind of collective response to submit to the state water board as it debates the new plan.

“We’re all trying to stay on the same page,” said Terry Crowley, utility director in Healdsburg, which, like Cloverdale, already is operating under mandatory water use restrictions.

The State Water Resources Control Board announced late Tuesday that its five appointed members would take up the proposed restrictions at their meeting next Tuesday in Sacramento. The meeting will include a public hearing that could go all day, said agency spokesman George Kostyrko.

“We are in one of the worst statewide droughts in modern times,” Marcus, the state water board chairwoman, said during a conference call Wednesday with reporters. “We are going to see hundreds of thousands of acres of fields fallow this year, thousands of people out of work. We have communities struggling for water, and bathing out of buckets. We have creeks and rivers that are running dry, and fish and wildlife are going to be suffering. We also don’t know when it will rain again.”

People in urban areas, whose faucets still dispense plenty of clean water, may not have the same level of awareness of just how bad things are, she said.

Targeting outdoor water use to cut back on water consumption makes sense as most households expend 30 to 60 percent or more of their water outdoors, Marcus and Kostyrko said.

“It’s kind of the low-hanging fruit,” Marcus said.

The state already has drastically reduced water deliveries for large urban water suppliers and agricultural users dependent on the State Water Project, which shunts water through the Central Valley to Southern California cities.

In recent months, it has also moved to curtail use by thousands of junior water rights holders on a number of rivers, including the upper Russian River, between Lake Mendocino and the river’s confluence with Dry Creek near Healdsburg.

As currently written, the water board’s newest proposal requires each community to impose mandatory conservation measures, including limits on water irrigation and prohibitions on the following activities: watering of outdoor landscapes in a manner causing runoff onto adjacent properties, walkways, and other paved surfaces; use of potable water for “application to any hard surface,” such as washing sidewalks, patios and driveways; use of a hose to wash vehicles unless it has a shut-off valve or nozzle; use of potable water for decorative fountains or water features, unless it is recirculated.

Violations would be considered infractions punishable by fines of $500 a day, though Marcus backed off somewhat on the issue of fines and enforcement Wednesday, suggesting communities might issue warnings instead.

“We’re trying to take the lightest touch we can to get the point across and give local agencies more tools, in addition to giving the direction to the public on what we and the members of the community really ought to be doing,” Marcus said.

Marcus said debate on the board and input received from the public, cities and water agencies over the next several days could mean the water board adopts even stricter measures, something less than proposed, or nothing at all.

But the restrictions proposed are the very least Californians should be doing, she said.

Many water agencies in Mendocino and Lake counties, some of which already have mandatory measures in place, are well on their way toward complying with the proposed regulations, officials said Wednesday.

Four of Lake County’s small agencies as well as the Redwood Valley County Water District in Mendocino County already are limited to 50 gallons a day.

But there’s wide variation in the targets imposed by suppliers. Even as it urges conservation, the Willow County Water District in south Ukiah allows households up to 22,500 gallons a month - about 750 gallons a day.

Many more water agencies have asked their customers for voluntary conservation, including Ukiah and Willits.

Willits had instituted mandatory conservation regulations early this year but lowered it to a voluntary level after spring rains refilled its reservoirs.

Both have made good progress with those efforts. Ukiah Public Works Director Tim Eriksen said Ukiah residents have reduced their usage by about a third.

Willits residents are using about 26 percent less water compared with the same time last year, Mayor Holly Madrigal said.

You can reach Staff Writer Mary Callahan at 521-5249 or mary.callahan@pressdemocrat.com. You can reach Staff Writer Glenda Anderson at 462-6473?or glenda.anderson@?pressdemocrat.com.