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Fountain Valley prefers local control of water use

A large fountain in Fountain Valley remains dry.
A large fountain in Fountain Valley remains dry.
(Hillary Davis / Daily Pilot)
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The city of Fountain Valley opposes proposed legislation that would centralize management of statewide water conservation with the State Water Resources Control Board and instead supports bills that allow local control.

After Gov. Jerry Brown ended the drought-related state of emergency across most of California in April, Assemblywomen Blanca Rubio (D-Baldwin Park) and Laura Friedman (D-Glendale) proposed bills to maintain water restrictions that Brown implemented last year. The council opposed Friedman’s bills and backed Rubio’s.

The City Council agreed at its Tuesday meeting to send the letters, addressed to Assemblyman Eduardo Garcia (D-Coachella), chair of the Assembly Water, Parks and Wildlife Committee, and copied to the legislators who submitted the measures.

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In its letter to Garcia opposing Friedman’s legislation, the council characterized her bills as taking a one-size-fits-all approach that had already proven ineffective when the SWRCB had statewide regulations during the most recent drought, with some parts of the state under cutback orders while being flooded.

“Recognizing that the hydrology of California ranges from temperate forests to arid desert, a system of regional authorities were set up decades ago to allow for water management policies tailored to real-world hydrological conditions,” the letter reads. “Water management practices in Humboldt can and should vary greatly from those in Coachella.”

The letter also criticized the possibility that the state water board would have no oversight or accountability to the Legislature, and could discourage the development of new water supplies.

In favoring Rubio’s solution, the council endorsed locally crafted water-efficiency goals and reports to the California Department of Water Resources.

“This would enable the state to better identify water suppliers experiencing actual water shortages and focus state assistance where it is needed most during a drought emergency,” the support letter reads.

Fountain Valley is a member agency of the Municipal Water District of Orange County and a groundwater producer in the Santa Ana groundwater basin managed by the Orange County Water District, which develops reclaimed water projects.

In both letters, the council said the city’s local policies led to residents cutting water use by 25%, beyond the reduction mandated by the “20% by 2020” water efficiency law passed in 2009.

“These combined efforts of regional and county agencies, along with policies implemented locally at the City level, further demonstrate that water management strategies are best implemented at the local level,” they said.

Brown’s banned practices include hosing sidewalks and driveways, irrigating during and after rainfall and irrigating road medians with drinking water.

hillary.davis@latimes.com

Twitter: @Daily_PilotHD

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