Relaxed water restrictions and warmer weather have slowed local conservation rates
Although local residents are continuing to use less water than they did in years past, conservation rates this summer seem to have slowed to a trickle following the relaxation of statewide mandates in June.
Foothill Municipal Water District — which serves La Cañada Irrigation District, Valley Water Co. and the Crescenta Valley and Mesa Crest water districts, among others — recently announced customers reduced their water use in July by 16% compared to the average use during July 2013 and July 2014, a new state benchmark.
That conservation rate is down from the 24% customers conserved in June, and much lower than May’s 33% reported decline from the same month in 2013. FMWD reported in an Aug. 16 release customers actually used 25% more water this July than they did in July 2015.
Water officials say July’s hot weather and the loosening of irrigation restrictions from twice weekly to three times a week likely accounted for the decline in savings.
“We see a big difference, when we’re doing our water delivery, and it gets hotter,” FMWD General Manager Nina Jazmadarian said in a recent interview. “This past July was warmer and drier than last July. And that extra day [of allowable irrigation] makes a difference as well — people are not conserving as much.”
Jazmadarian said the district anticipated a slow down in savings after Gov. Jerry Brown announced in May a shift away from water rationing and steep fines for excess users in favor of a more relaxed, long-term conservation plan.
Water agencies statewide were asked in June to estimate anticipated water demands and supplies three years out, accounting for a dry hydrology. Any gaps between those two sets of figures would be the amount a district or agency was required to save. In the meantime, any excess water supplies would be stored.
Jazmadarian said the reason for a rollback in standards is twofold. More water was collected during last winter’s El Niño weather pattern, when the snow pack in Northern California melted into fresh supplies. Metropolitan Water District, which exports supplies to FMWD, currently has about 1.5 million acre-feet of water in storage (a single acre-foot, about 326,000 gallons, is enough for two households for one year).
Reducing customers’ collective conservation weariness was another reason.
“People are still aware there’s a drought and that they need to conserve water. What happens, though, is that people get weary of drought messaging and volunteering,” Jazmadarian said. “When there’s a need again we’ll go out with drought messaging again, and they’ll be ready for that.”
Efforts to save in the past 16 months have had enormous results, with Foothill Municipal officials reporting in June water use figures were the lowest they’ve been since the 1950s. Even among Valley Water Co. customers, who historically use the most water in FMWD’s delivery area, per capita rates dropped from 435 gallons per person per day in 2006-07 to 268 gallons so far in 2015-16.
That’s still a far cry from the state’s per capita average of 77 gallons. Valley Water Co. General Manager Bob Fan said his service area consists almost exclusively of single-family dwellings that have large irrigation needs but few residents.
In the height of the mandate, Valley Water Co. customers were required to reduce their water use 36% from 2013 figures at the risk of being fined by the state. In July, however, they saved just 12% compared to the new benchmark average.
Fan said allowing three days per week watering likely accounted for the reduction in savings. Still, the larger trend of cutting back in a multiyear drought seems to be continuing, the general manager reported.
“Our customers are still doing a good job being water-wise,” Fan said. “I think many of our customers have changed their way of life, really. Depending on conditions, things may become different, but overall everybody’s still doing their part.”
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Sara Cardine, sara.cardine@latimes.com
Twitter: @SaraCardine
