Abundant Snow Fall and Early Spring Rainfall Have Aided Some Water Restrictions For California

California water board adopts regulations easing up
on hard conservation targets
   
 FILE - In this July 2, 2015 file photo, cars, in Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif., drive by a sign encouraging residents to save water California will consider lifting a mandatory statewide water conservation order for cities and towns after a rainy, snowy winter eased the state’s five-year drought, water officials said Monday, May 9, 2016. Members of the state Water Resources Control Board will decide May 18 whether to remove the 11-month-old statewide order. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson, File) 
By Steve Scauzillo, San Gabriel Valley Tribune  Posted: 05/18/16, 5:55 PM PDT 

The State Water Resources Control Board approved an eight-month drought emergency plan on Wednesday that scraps previous targets and allows urban water suppliers to set their own water conservation goals.
Instead of the hard targets in place for the past year that require up to 36 percent cutbacks, the new regulation allows the 411 urban water suppliers greater flexibility to conserve, taking into account vast regional differences in water supplies. The new rules will also require less than the previous, statewide 25 percent conservation goal that Californians failed to reach in February, missing that number by just 1 percent.

Near-capacity reservoirs in Northern California and a healthy snowpack have eased the emergency in the state, water officials said. However, while the northern half of the state is no longer in drought mode, the central and southern regions remain dry due to uneven winter rainfall. The board will still press urban water users to continue conserving but with a softer approach.

“It is a question of how do we use this short reprieve,” said Felicia Marcus, chair of the state water board. “We have the ability to come back if it doesn’t work.”

Despite voting for the new rules, Marcus was not the only board member uneasy with the changes she characterized as “a different approach.”
In a rare move, board member Tam Doduc, a licensed civil engineer, abstained from the vote, saying the lack of specific conservation targets was inappropriate for an emergency regulation.
 
“We are still trying to recover from years of drought and are still looking at below normal or a dry year,” she said. “It doesn’t seem to be the time to send a message that there is no real urgent need to conserve at all.”

Each urban water supplier will be asked to take a stress test — similar to what banks are required to do under the Dodd-Frank Act — and prove they are able to withstand another three years of drought. For example, if an agency foresees a supply shortage of 10 percent, it will be assigned a mandatory conservation standard of 10 percent, according to Max Gomberg, the board’s climate and conservation manager.
Gomberg said many parts of the state are still experiencing the drought’s effects, including barren wells and tinder dry forests more susceptible to wildfires. 

“We are not out of the woods yet,” he said. “We have some continuing challenges. Current climate predictions are for a dry winter. It is a good reason for continued caution.”
Most water agencies testified in support of the new regulation, including the Association of California Water Agencies, which represents 430 public agencies.
Some communities, such as those in Humboldt County in Northern California, say they have abundant surface water and welcome the new approach. But some water managers and conservation groups in Southern California say removing stiff targets and replacing them with self-reporting may send the wrong message.

“By taking the hard limits out, it lends to the public perception that the drought is over,” said Adan Ortega, executive director of the California Association of Mutual Water Cos. “It also introduces ambiguity into the equation.”
For example, groundwater resources relied upon by cities in the Inland Empire and San Gabriel Valley have not been restored due to below-average rainfall in Southern California for the fifth straight year.
“The San Gabriel Valley is far from out of the woods,” Ortega said.
State water managers said California has been withdrawing too often from groundwater during the past four years.
“We often talk about groundwater as the savings account for the state. When we deplete that in severe drought it is tough to build it back up,” Gomberg said.
The new regulations would continue the ban on various water-wasting practices, such as carwashing without a hose nozzle; watering down sidewalks or driveways; irrigation runoff over curbs and into gutters and outdoor watering within 48 hours of a measurable rainfall.
The regulations go into effect June 1 and run through January, state water officials said.
http://www.dailynews.com/environment-and-nature/20160518/california-water-board-adopts-regulations-easing-up-on-hard-conservation-targets

eddie wrote:

---

Which is the rainiest state?
I know Hawaii is supposed to be pretty wet.