Californians falling far short on water conservation as drought worsens

Facing a severe and deepening drought, California received its first report card for water conservation on Tuesday. The news wasn’t good.

Driven by a lack of conservation in Southern California, the state’s largest cities and water districts cut statewide urban water use by just 1.8% in July compared to July 2020 — far short of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s call for a 15% statewide voluntary reduction.

Of 376 cities and water districts that reported numbers to the State Water Resources Control Board, only 26, or 7%, met or exceeded the target.

“This drought is very serious,” said Karla Nemeth, director of the State Department of Water Resources. “In particular, how quickly it has developed. So we need people to be paying attention and acting now.”

The North Coast region of the state was the only one of 10 that met the target, reducing water use 16.7% amid some of the most severe water shortages in California. Next was the Bay Area, which cut use 8.4%, followed by the Central Coast, at 5.2%.

Most of Southern California showed no significant conservation. The South Coast region, which includes Los Angeles, Orange County and San Diego, cut water use by only 0.1%.

Water experts said that if this winter is dry, many parts of the state will be in an emergency.

“The new conservation numbers are both extremely disappointing and not surprising,” said Peter Gleick, founder of the Pacific Institute, a nonprofit water research organization in Oakland. “They show that unless there is really a strong message from the top about the need to conserve, the public doesn’t respond. And we didn’t get that strong message either from the governor’s office or from the Southern California water agencies.”

Some state water officials said they expect to see improvement.

“It is important to note that conservation takes time to boot up,” said Joaquin Esquivel, chairman of the state water board. “We saw that in the last drought as well.”

Southern California received slightly more rain than much of Northern California this winter. Local officials there have noted new supply projects built in the past 20 years, including Diamond Valley Reservoir in Riverside County and a $1 billion ocean desalination plant in Carlsbad near San Diego, have helped.

But much of Southern California relies on water from the northern part of the state.

And after the two driest years since 1976-77, many of Northern California’s largest reservoirs are dangerously low. On Tuesday, the largest, Shasta Lake, was just 25% full. The second largest, Lake Oroville in Butte County, was at 22% capacity, the lowest level since it was built in 1969. More locally, the 10 reservoirs in Santa Clara County are just 12% full. Marin County’s reservoirs are projected to run completely dry by next summer.

Even so, Nemeth said that Newsom is not planning to announce statewide mandatory water conservation targets right away, the way Gov. Jerry Brown did in 2015 during the state’s last drought. Brown’s rules — which came after lackluster voluntary conservation and resulted in the state hitting its goal of 25% savings by 2016 — were controversial, she noted. Some cities said then that they had sufficient supplies, and Brown’s cutbacks cost them millions of dollars in lost water sales.

Instead, this time Newsom and other state leaders plan to wait until November to see how cities and water districts ramp up conservation on their own, she said. Many are still allowing lawn watering three or more days a week.

“They said, ‘We can manage our own supplies,’” Nemeth said of local water districts. “If they want to do it, they should do it. But make no mistake. Gov. Newsom will step in with something mandatory if they are not able to meet their numbers and we continue to see these trends deepen.”

Nemeth also said Tuesday that cities and farms across the state should brace to receive no water next year from the State Water Project if this winter is dry again.

A few communities reported dramatic savings, particularly in Sonoma and Mendocino counties, which saw some of the driest conditions in recorded history during the past two winters.

Healdsburg cut water use 54% this July compared to the prior year, the most of any city in California. Because of state cutbacks on pumping from the Russian River, Healdsburg officials banned all lawn watering this summer, with fines of up to $500 for violators. Also leading the pack statewide was Cloverdale with 37%, Daly City with 36% and Petaluma with 25%.

The cities farthest from the goal were Chowchilla, in the Central Valley, which increased water use 35% and El Segundo in Los Angeles County, which increased by 31%.

There were major differences between Northern California and Southern California.

Residents of Los Angeles increased water use by 1%. So did San Diego.

But the Bay Area went in the other direction. The 1 million people who receive water from San Jose Water Company cut their use by 11%. Similarly, San Francisco cut by 10%, the East Bay Municipal Utility District saw an 8% drop, Contra Costa Water District reported a 7% decline, and the Alameda County Water District cut by 6%.

“We are heading in the right direction,” said Liann Walborsky, a spokeswoman for the San Jose Water Company. “Our customers are hearing the call to action. This is very good news.”

The company is expected to decide in the next month whether to put in place water budgets and surcharges for San Jose residents for the first time in four years. The intent would be to meet tougher conservation rules from the Santa Clara Valley Water District, which declared a drought emergency this summer in part because its largest reservoir, Anderson, near Morgan Hill, is empty for earthquake repairs.

At East Bay MUD, which has asked its customers for a 10% voluntary reduction, the rules could tighten in the coming months if the winter is dry, said spokeswoman Andrea Pook.

“We’re grateful for the conservation that our customers are doing,” she said. “We can and should do more.”