Water use increases throughout California despite severe drought - The San Francisco Examiner

A year after Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a drought emergency in hard-hit northwest counties, some experts say a state mandate is critical to keeping enough water in storage to survive a drought that could last a number of years. Californians used 2.6% more water in January compared to before the drought emergency was declared, a sign that urban residents are ignoring the state’s pleas to take the drought seriously and cut back.

Newsom spokesperson Alex Stack declined to answer whether Newsom intends to set a mandatory conservation order. Overall, Californians from July through January conserved about 6.5% statewide compared to 2020, according to state data — falling far short of Newsom’s requested 15%. The state data only includes water use from urban water districts, not rural irrigation districts that serve farms.

Californians responded: They cut their water use by 23.9% between June 2015 and February 2016, compared to the same months in 2013, according to water board staff. Cities and towns still use less water daily than they did before the last drought began: about 17% less per person. Water providers caution against reading too much into the low January conservation numbers: It’s harder for Californians to squeeze out additional savings during the winter, when many already cut back on watering their yards.

For some local water agencies, voluntary calls for conservation have come close to meeting their own goals, though not the state’s 15% target.In the Bay Area, the East Bay Municipal Utility District upped its rates to fund improvements and asked residents to voluntarily cut water use by 10%. In San Jose, insufficient voluntary conservation prompted the local water company to institute surcharges for those who exceed mandatory limits based on 15% cuts to water used above a minimum threshold in 2019. In November, the California Public Utilities Commission approved the district’s mandate, which took effect in December.

In the aerospace hub of Palmdale in the Mojave Desert, after the area received less than two inches of rain, local water officials faced the possibility of mandatory cuts last summer. Then they bolstered their supplies enough to make it through the dry months. “The momentum of having the state come out with a mandate makes our jobs easier,” Thompson said. “But California is huge. And it’s diverse in terms of the different water agencies and their available water supplies. So it makes a lot more sense to make that an individual choice for each agency.”For some water systems, even mandatory calls for conservation haven’t been enough to weather water shortages.

Residential water use is far lower than commercial

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