California governor orders mandatory water restrictions

ECHO LAKE - Gov. Jerry Brown ordered mandatory water-use restrictions for the first time on Wednesday, saying the state’s four-year drought had reached critical proportions after a winter of record-low snowfall has left the Sierra Nevada nearly bare.

In an executive order, Brown directed the State Water Resources Control Board to impose a 25 percent reduction on the state’s 400 local water supply agencies over the coming year.

“We’re in a historic drought and that demands unprecedented action,” Brown said at a news conference in the Sierra, standing on dry grass at a site typically covered by 5 feet of snow at this time of year. “We have to pull together and save water in every way we can.”

The move will affect residents, businesses and farmers, as well as maintenance of golf courses and cemeteries.

The Sonoma County Water Agency, which delivers Russian River water to 600,000 customers in Sonoma and Marin counties, supports the governor’s order and will work with its contractors to achieve the 25 percent cutback, said Brad Sherwood, the agency’s spokesman.

“Our community has shown exceptional ability to respond to the drought,” he said, noting that the region’s average individual water use dropped from 128 gallons a day in 2013 to 110 gallons a day in 2014.

Reducing outdoor irrigation will be a key part of meeting the new state order, Sherwood said. The water agency is preparing to recommend that residents limit outdoor watering to no more than three days a week, he said.

The agency’s nine contractors, including the city of Santa Rosa, are responsible for setting specific conservation measures, as are local water suppliers throughout the state.

The agency is also preparing to ask the state for renewed permission to reduce the release of water from Lake Mendocino, a step aimed at conserving water supplies for users along the upper Russian River, Sherwood said.

The region’s two major reservoirs - Lake Mendocino near Ukiah and Lake Sonoma near Healdsburg - are both “near average” for this time of year, he said. Lake Mendocino is at 58 percent of capacity, with Lake Sonoma at 88 percent.

Santa Rosa reduced water use by 19 percent last year, compared to 2013, said Jennifer Burke, the city’s deputy director of water and engineering services. Individual water consumption dropped from 115 gallons per day in 2013 to 95 gallons last year, a figure Burke said was “very much on the low end.”

California’s standard for indoor-only water use is 55 gallons a day per person. Outdoor residential water use, primarily landscape irrigation, accounts for 34 percent of urban water use in the state, vastly exceeding commercial, institutional and industrial water consumption.

Santa Rosa’s “cash for grass” program, which subsidizes conversion of green lawns to drought-tolerant landscaping, has paid rebates for removal of 2.5 million square feet of turf. The program got a boost last summer when the city increased payments from 50 cents to $1 per square foot, Burke said.

The city also offers subsidies to homeowners who install water-saving toilets, shower heads and water aerators.

“We want to meet the governor’s goal,” Burke said.

Karissa Kruse, president of the Sonoma County Winegrowers, said that the governor’s order wouldn’t have any immediate effect on vineyard owners, though her group is awaiting more details. She said there is a possibility for more funding for technology that will help farmers better monitor and conserve their water use.

Locally, vineyard owners for almost two years have taken steps to reduce their water usage, Kruse said, whether moving toward dry-farming or using technology to better monitor the right amount of water for a rootstock.

Brown’s order will require campuses, golf courses, cemeteries and other sites with large landscapes to make “significant cuts” in water use; replace 50 million square feet of lawns throughout the state with drought-tolerant landscaping; and create a temporary rebate program for consumers who replace old appliances with more water- and energy-efficient models.

Big agricultural water users will be required to report usage to state regulators. New residential communities will be required to install water-efficient irrigation systems; those communities will be barred from watering ornamental grass on public street medians.

The governor’s order requires a 25 percent cut in water use through next February, compared with statewide water consumption in 2013. It would vary from community to community, reflecting the fact that some areas of the state have done a better job in reducing water consumption.

State officials said they were prepared to enforce punitive measures - including fines - to assure compliance, but said they were hopeful it would not be necessary.

“People should realize we are in a new era,” Brown said. “The idea of your nice little green lawn getting watered every day, those days are past.”

He acknowledged the difficulty and political sensitivity inherent in ordering Californians to use less water, which is central to the state’s identity and economy.

Brown spoke at the site in the Sierra where the Department of Water Resources conducts its snow survey. The historical average snow depth there on April 1, when the snowpack typically reaches its peak, is 66.5 inches. On Wednesday at that location, there was no snow.

The Sierra snowpack, the source of 30 percent of the state’s water for farms and cities, is at an all-time-low 8 percent of normal, the only single-digit figure in 65 years of measuring the snowpack.

This report includes information from Staff Writers Guy Kovner and Bill Swindell, the New York Times and the Washington Post.