Laguna beats rest of state in water-use cuts

Laguna Beach residents and business owners cut a greater percentage of outdoor water use in October than the rest of California as the State Water Resources Control Board released conservation figures for the month Tuesday.

South Coast Water District customers cut water use 25.8% compared to October 2013, while Laguna Beach County Water District customers trimmed use 24.1% during the fifth month of a state mandate to conserve water as California battles a crippling drought.

State water officials noted October was unseasonably warmer than prior years making conservation difficult.

Residents statewide cut water use 22.2% compared to October 2013. In September, Californians reduced water consumption 26.4%.

“We anticipated a dip in the conservation rate for October, but it is not because people are losing interest — they actually did quite well considering how unusually hot it was in October,” state water board Chairwoman Felicia Marcus said in a news release. “It’s harder to keep the percentages up in the fall and winter when little outdoor watering takes place. That’s why the savings over the summer were so important. Now, we need to keep finding ways to save water.”

Both South Coast and Laguna Beach County water districts must cut potable water use 24% by the end of next February to comply with state-issued conservation targets that went into effect in June. Gov. Jerry Brown mandated a 25% statewide reduction.

Every water agency in California has a goal it must meet or face punishment, such as fines.

South Coast, which serves residents and businesses in South Laguna, San Juan Capistrano, Dana Point and San Clemente, has reduced water use 30.4% in the last five months while Laguna Beach County, which serves customers in the city’s downtown core and parts of Crystal Cove State Park and Emerald Bay, has cut overall consumption 23.1%.

The state board uses a sliding scale for setting conservation standards, so that communities that have already reduced water use through past efforts will have lower mandates than those that have not made such gains since the last major drought.

Both districts that serve Laguna have enacted restrictions to cut consumption, such as limiting outdoor watering during certain times and days.

For June through October, the cumulative statewide reduction was 27.1% compared with the same months in 2013. California is more than three-quarters toward its goal of saving 1.2 million acre-feet of water by the end of February.