Californians Debate Easing Water Restrictions

California restricted water use in urban areas last year as a way to address the effects of the drought. Now, as the drought enters its fifth year, officials say they may ease up on the restrictions.

“California's Water Resources Control Board is slated to decide in February whether to slightly ease water-conservation targets for some cities and towns,” the San Jose Mercury News reported.

Governor Jerry Brown mandated a 25-percent reduction in water use last year. Enforcement began in June. The new regulations saw Californians “use 26 percent less water as compared to 2013, a savings of more than 1 million acre-feet or enough to supply 5 million Californians for a year,” the San Gabriel Valley Tribune reported.

But this year, authorities may ease up on the restrictions.

“Water board officials [say] they are considering reducing conservation targets by up to 8 percent for some of the state's more than 400 water agencies. That's higher than an earlier draft in December, which suggested up to 4 percent cuts in the targets,” the Mercury News reported.

“The proposal by the State Water Resources Control Board would also mean less onerous conservation mandates for California’s fastest-growing communities, as well as those that have created new ‘drought-resilient’ water supplies for themselves through recycling, desalination or other means,” The Sacramento Bee reported.

The possibility of a new framework has revived the debate in California over the effectiveness of mandatory cuts.

Some critics insist that cuts should not be the only tool the state uses to offset for the effects of drought. Timothy Quinn, executive director of the Association of California Water Agencies, expressed concern about overemphasizing this approach in a Sacramento Bee editorial.

He pointed out that water agencies have invested in projects to diversify their water supplies. They have funded water recycling, water storage, and desalination projects.

“If the State Water Board’s current approach continues in 2016, there could be little incentive for public water agencies and their ratepayers to invest in additional drought-proof supplies. Water agencies also could see damage to their credibility with customers if they cannot use the very tools paid for with ratepayer dollars,” the report said.

He called on the board to consider water supply tools, not just water demand management tools such as cutbacks. He called on the state to recognize both types of tools as equally important.

For cities investing in ways to secure their water supply, restrictions can seem to ignore their hard-fought investments. “The San Diego County Water Authority just dedicated a $1 billion desalination plant, the largest in the Western Hemisphere, and has complained that it wasn’t getting any credit for that investment. Other coastal communities are proposing to build plants, too,” the Bee reported.

But many critics say that softening the water cuts in California would be a mistake. Environmentalist Sara Aminzadeh, executive director of the California Coastkeeper Alliance, expressed this view.

“As long as we continue to exist in an emergency state, then we need to be pursuing this 25 percent mandatory reduction, and any of these adjustments and credits and exemptions are taking us away from that,” she said, per the Bee. “Now if our emergency state changes and we’re no longer in an emergency situation, then we can take some more time to develop some regulations in the long term that are workable for all areas of the state.”

To keep up with the ways that California is managing drought, visit Water Online’s Water Scarcity Solutions Center.