El Nino could signal easing of California drought

The savings in December was 18.3 percent compared to the same month in 2013, thanks largely to cooler, wetter weather, officials with the State Water Resources Control Board announced today, February 2.

The updated regulations say the state water board “recognizes that conservation requirements implemented in response to critical drought conditions differ from those actions needed to optimize urban water use efficiency and build resilience over the long-term”.

The four other basins were well over the February 1 average, giving the state 117 percent of the historical norm for snowpack water content for the first of February. Many have had to cut water use by 36 percent, and the average savings mandate in greater Sacramento is 30 percent. That’s down from 20.4 percent in November and is the lowest percentage saved in any month since June, when Gov. Jerry Brown’s order took effect requiring cities and water agencies across California to reduce water use 25 percent or face fines and penalties.

Water regulators are now looking ahead to April, when California typically sees a snowpack runoff from the Sierra Nevada mountains.

Cities in the Northstate missed their conservation goals in December.

“It’s certainly a very encouraging start to the winter”, Frank Gehrke, chief of the California Cooperative Snow Surveys Program, told the AP, although he said the snowpack will need continued storms and precipitation to maintain its water content for the coming melt in order to potentially make a difference in the drought. The drop in the conservation rate was expected during the cooler fall and winter months, when less water in general is used by Californians and less of an opportunity exists to save on outdoor water use, compared to the hot summer months.

Brown ordered the statewide cutback during the state’s fourth year of drought.

However, the State Water Resources Control Board reported Tuesday at a meeting in Sacramento that California remains on course to beat its long-term conservation goal.

“We’re still running a pretty big deficit”, says Bell. Many have been lobbying the water board for more leeway going forward, asking for a lower targets for districts in inland areas or for those with large local water supplies.

The proposal doesn’t go far enough to reward communities that have invested millions of dollars to protect supplies during times of drought, David Bolland, special projects manager at the Association of California Water Agencies, said in a letter to the state water board.

“That’s water that is still in our streams and in our reservoirs…it really shows the power of conservation and efficiency”, he said.

“We look at this as an insurance policy, or as increased security in case the drought continues”, explained Max Gomberg, SWRCB climate and conservation manager. By then, they say it will be clearer whether California is still in drought.