LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Now in the fourth year of a drought, California's ongoing water shortage is forcing residents around the state and here in Lake County to adopt new ways of addressing water use, with state officials enforcing new measures to reach needed conservation levels.
Last month, the State Water Resources Control Board adopted an emergency regulation requiring an immediate 25 percent reduction in overall potable urban water use statewide, as Lake County News has reported.
That decision came as the board reported that conservation across California's urban water users was a fraction of what was being sought.
In March, it was a mere 3.6 percent in March when compared to March 2013. Then, on Tuesday, the State Water Board reported that conservation increased across cities and towns to 13.5 percent.
The cumulative statewide percent reduction for June 2014 to April 2015 is 9 percent, far short of the mandatory average conservation rate of 25 percent that the state is beginning to implement this month.
The state is keeping stricter focus on the larger urban water districts, which must submit monthly reports to the state to show their conservation efforts.
Smaller urban suppliers – which are estimated to serve 1- percent of Californians – must submit a report on Dec. 15 to show they also are conserving.
Those smaller urban suppliers are defined as those that serve 3,000 or fewer connections, which covers Lake County suppliers. They must either reduce water use by 25 percent, or restrict outdoor irrigation to no more than two days per week under the new rules.
The new regulations, according to Felicia Marcus, chair of the State Water Resources Control Board, are the result of state officials trying to do the best they can in a rapidly evolving situation.
“We understand this is a big deal and a challenge for everybody, but the drought that we’re in is serious and it really calls on us to rise to the occasion,” Marcus told reporters in a call earlier this spring.
“We’re in a drought we’d hoped we would not see in our lifetime,” said Marcus, comparing California's current situation to where Australia was a decade ago.
Australians – who thought they were in a normal three-year drought cycle – which turned out to be a six-year cycle – offered California regulators advice, Marcus said.
“Their advice early on to us was to conserve, conserve, conserve early, to save more pain and expense later on,” she said.
California's drought, now in its fourth year, may or may not be a millennial drought, she said.
“We need to take action now that we’ll be glad we took in case it lasts longer,” said Marcus, noting that conservation is still the cheapest, fastest and smartest way to buy time for the state's shrinking water supply.
Water systems institute conservation measures
Compared to the urban districts around the state that are facing greater water conservation demands, a sampling of Lake County's water districts show impressive efforts by residents.
Efforts began early in 2014, at about the same time that the Board of Supervisors introduced an emergency drought proclamation.
Since it was passed on March 4, 2014, that drought proclamation has been extended 13 times. Lake County Office of Emergency Services Manager Marisa Chilafoe said it's set to be extended again on June 16.
At the same meeting as they were considering the initial emergency drought proclamation, the Board of Supervisors approved urgency ordinances for the Bonanza Springs, Paradise Valley and Starview systems, which went into effect April 12, March 13 and March 14, respectively, as Lake County News has reported.
Bonanza Springs and Starview customers were urged to keep water usage under 900 cubic feet, or 6,732 gallons on a monthly basis, or face higher costs, while Paradise Valley's urgency ordinance required that monthly usage be kept under 500 cubic feet, or 3,740 gallons.
In May 2014, the board followed by approving urgency restrictions Special Districts staff sought for the 36-customer Mt. Hannah water system on Cobb.
Lake County Special Districts Compliance Manager Jan Coppinger said at the time that Mt. Hannah likely was the county's hardest-hit water system as far as the drought was concerned.
Mt. Hannah's ordinance, which went into effect on June 13, placed a surcharge of $350 on any water use exceeding 750 cubic feet per month on a single-family dwelling; prohibited outdoor water usage for landscaping, hot tubs and pools; and prohibits any new service connections during the ordinance's duration.
Special Districts followed up by taking to the Board of Supervisors on July 22 a request for three more urgency ordinances, for Finley, the Kelseyville County Waterworks District No. 3 and Spring Valley, all of which were approved following separate public hearings. Those ordinances all went into effect on the same day.
The ordinances required that Finley, Kelseyville and Spring Valley water customers use less than 2,500 cubic feet per month or else pay a $350 surcharge, which rises to $700 for use that exceeds 4,000 cubic feet per month.
Customers who didn't adhere to those limits faced the possibility of additional penalties, with the ordinances authorizing Special District “discontinue water service or install a water restrictor device at the water meter to any water user who willfully and continuously violates the restrictions of this ordinance.”
In December, the county lifted the urgency ordinances for Kelseyville and Finley after comparing well levels to the prior year's consumption, Coppinger said.
Coppinger said mandatory conservation has remained in effect in several Special Districts-run systems – Bonanza Springs, Mount Hannah, Paradise Valley, Spring Valley and Starview – since the Board of Supervisors approved the measures specific to those systems last year.
The North Lakeport, Soda Bay and Kono Tayee systems have so far not been placed under urgency restrictions, she said.
Coppinger reviewed the conservation for the 10 systems run by Special Districts, with only three failing to meet or exceed the 25-percent conservation target.
Conservation efforts by district through the start of April are as follows (current use compared to 2013 consumption):
– Mount Hannah Water: 45 percent;
– Paradise Valley Water: 43 percent;
– Bonanza Springs: 33 percent;
– Kelseyville: 36 percent;
– Starview: 35 percent;
– Finley: 25 percent;
– Kono Tayee: 25 percent;
– Spring Valley: 20 percent;
– Soda Bay Water: 14 percent;
– North Lakeport: 5 percent.
Coppinger said she anticipated North Lakeport having to be put under an urgency ordinance, since they are not getting voluntary compliance for water reduction in that district.
Regarding Spring Valley, Coppinger said Special Districts had implemented conservation tiers two to three years ago, so their usage already was down.
“So we're not alarmed with theirs, we think they're in good shape,” she said.
Although Special Districts has had a few offenders when it comes to water overuse, that's not the norm, said Coppinger.
“Overall, almost 90 percent of the people we talk to take the drought seriously,” and are doing with everything they can do conserve, she said.
In addition, Special Districts worked with the UC Master Gardeners to present three workshops in February and March to help customers learn about drought tolerant landscaping and gardening.
“We are hearing from quite a few customers that are replacing their landscaping with native, drought tolerant plants and are pleased with the outcome,” Coppinger said.
While small districts don't have to regularly report water conservation like their larger counterparts, Coppinger is concerned that could change if everyone doesn't get on board and do their part.
She expects the state is going to get increasingly hard-nosed. “They're not going to let anyone slide here. We're all going to have to conserve.”
By December Special Districts will have to report its numbers to the state, one of the biggest changes under the new rules. By that time, the agency must show an overall 25-percent reduction in water use for its districts when compared to 2013.
With Special Districts customers being proactive and conserving water for over a year, “The new order should not have a significant impact,” said Coppinger.
The county is entering the summer with a higher lake than it had last year. “The lake is higher but not the water table that affects the wells,” Coppinger said.
She added that she doesn't believe Special Districts “has ever seen anything of this magnitude or this many urgency ordinances.”
Meanwhile, the city of Lakeport also continues to encourage voluntary conservation in lieu of taking a harder line with city water customers.
City Finance Director Dan Buffalo told Lake County News that, from calendar year 2013 to 2014, water usage citywide – across all customer classes – went down 12.79 percent, even with new, more accurate meters installed and reading the last two months of 2014.
He said he didn't see the city needing to take any significant steps to meet the governor’s order.
In September, the Lakeport City Council unanimously approved a resolution instituting a stage one water emergency that included requirements to conserve water.
On May 5 the council voted unanimously to continue the emergency at that level rather than pushing much stricter guidelines.
Other districts address conservation
Gay Guidotti, manager of California Water Service's Redwood Valley District – which includes six water systems, among them Lucerne, which was 1,250 active connections – said Cal Water has been reporting to the state on a monthly basis.
She said the district as a whole was fluctuating between 59 and 62 gallons per person per day, which she called “pretty reasonable.”
That had led to the expectation that, based on the state's the most recent guidelines – which require urban water suppliers that use less than 65 residential gallons per capita per day to reduce total water use by 8 percent – the district would not be required to pull back usage as much.
However, Guidotti said the Redwood Valley District has been put in the 16-percent reduction category by the State Water Board.
“We had expected to be in a lower budget category and it looks as though the State Board looked at summer usage amounts and not annualized usage amounts. Redwood Valley District as a whole has more than met the reduction goals,” Guidotti said.
She said Cal Water is developing water budgets for each customer, with those budgets to be based on a requested 16-percent reduction of customers' 2013 summer usage.
“We are going back to 2013 because that is part of the Governor’s proclamation for the 25 percent reduction goal (to meet by February 2016),” Guidotti said. “Most customers in Lucerne met that 16 percent and more in 2014, so their budgets will more than likely reflect the same usage they had in 2014.”
She added, “This is good news to most of our customers and means if they just keep making that same effort as in 2014 we should be fine with our goals.”
Guidotti said there also will be a minimum use threshold of four units per month – or 400 cubic feet, which is 3000 gallons per month – so if customers already are at or below that minimum threshold, they will not be requested to reduce any more than that.
“There will be surcharges for amounts used over your budget,” she said. “Any unused monthly budgets will be able to roll over to the next month. We will also include an appeals process for customers that need a larger water budget due to changes in their household, health and safety issues, and commercial uses.”
For Nice Mutual Water Co., General Manager David Fultz said they have a steady water supply, which is drawn from Clear Lake. “Clear lake is higher than it was last year at this time.”
He said the district instituted a tiered structure in its bill system a few years ago, and have seen usage reductions as a result.
“People are already conserving,” he said.
In the Clearlake Oaks County Water District, which also has Clear Lake for its only water source, General Manager Matt Bassett said the district's billings show a 12-percent usage reduction when comparing the first three months of the year to last year.
“But as a water plant, we are producing more than we did last year,” he said.
While the district is asking customers to conserve, Bassett said it hasn't imposed any mandatory water-saving measures and isn't raising rates for the purpose of forcing people to conserve. He said the district's customers already use low amounts of water.
Rather, he said it's focusing on issues with its decades-old water system infrastructure, with proposed rate increases that are expected to go into effect this summer.
In the first three months of this year the district had a 60-percent water loss through leaks and other distribution system problems. Fixing one large leak brought that percentage down to under 50 percent since.
He said the district is working to get a $400,000 grant for a distribution system study.
“The biggest way for us to save water is for us to fix our leaks,” he said, adding that the district hates to point its finger at customers when it has failing infrastructure. “We’re out fixing every leak we can find.”
He said the goal is to get the leak losses down to under 20 percent.
Bassett pointed out that, despite the drought, water remains cheap. “When you don’t have enough, then it becomes a big deal.”
In the case of Clearlake Oaks, “We’ve got a strong water plant and a good water source,” Bassett said.
In the Hidden Valley Lake Community Services District, General Manager Roland Sanford said water use is down since 2013.
In 2014, Hidden Valley Lake's residential water use was, on the whole, 15 percent lower than the corresponding 2013 time frame, Sanford said.
He said the district has had a good start in 2015, noting that water usages is lower than the corresponding 2013 or 2014 cycles.
In an effort to have local water agencies talking about the issues, Chilafoe said the Lake County Drought Task Force – which first began convening local water agencies last July – is set to start meeting again this summer.
Chilafoe said the group will meet later this month.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
Local water districts, residents work to conserve water in face of stricter regulations
- Elizabeth Larson
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