Hosing off the driveway. Watering lawns within 48 hours of a rain storm. Washing a car without a shut-off nozzle.
Any of those wasteful practices could soon be illegal in drought-stricken California, with fines of up to $500 for violators.
Seven months after Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a drought emergency for most counties in California, his administration is moving forward with something water conservation experts said should have happened long ago — crafting statewide rules to ban the egregious wasting of water.
“These are no brainers,” said Newsha Ajami, a civil engineer and director of Stanford University’s Urban Water Policy Program. “I’m glad they are doing it. I wish they would have done it months ago.”
Under the proposed rules rolled out this past week by the State Water Resources Control Board, it would be illegal for anyone in California to:
- Water landscaping so that “more than incidental runoff” flows into a road, sidewalk or parking lot.
- Wash a vehicle with a hose unless the hose has a shut-off nozzle.
- Hose off sidewalks, driveways, patios and buildings “except in cases where health and safety are at risk.”
- Water grass or landscaping within 48 hours of rain.
- Use water in decorative fountains or ponds unless they have a pump to recirculate it.
- Irrigate grass on street medians with potable water.
- Use potable water for street cleaning or construction “unless no other method can be used to protect the health and safety of the public.”
It also would be illegal for homeowner’s associations to penalize residents for not watering landscaping during a drought emergency, like this one.
Violators could face fines of up to $500 a day. It would be up to local cities, counties and water agencies to enforce the rules.
“It’s similar to what was done during the last drought,” said Eric Oppenheimer, chief deputy director for the State Water Resources Control Board. “They are pretty common-sense, wasteful uses of water that we definitely want to prohibit during periods of drought like we’re in now.”
Many urban areas already have similar rules in place, which they made permanent during prior droughts. Among those are San Jose, the East Bay Municipal Utility District, San Francisco, Sacramento and Los Angeles.
But the local rules vary by area. There is little enforcement. And state water board officials say they don’t know how many of California’s 40 million residents are subject to them.
The state’s most recent study, done in 2015, found that 95% of California water agencies had local rules banning overwatering landscaping that allows water runoff into the street or sidewalk. But only 65% required hotels to notify guests they may choose not to have sheets and towels washed daily. Just 40% prohibited watering lawns within 48 hours of rain, and only 18% banned watering grass on street medians.
Statewide water wasting rules have a controversial political history.
They were originally put in place in 2014 during the last drought by the administration of former Gov. Jerry Brown. But they were passed on an emergency basis, and expired in November 2017 after Brown lifted the state’s emergency drought declaration following soaking winter rains that year.
The state water board tried to make them permanent in 2018. But several powerful local water agencies — including Westlands Water District in Fresno and the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission — complained the rules could be the first step toward violating the agencies’ water rights.
Specifically, their lawyers said at a 2018 hearing that they were upset that the water board was citing a provision in the state constitution that prohibits “waste or unreasonable use” of water as the legal basis for the rules, which they said could be misused in future.
“Will it be waste and unreasonable use to irrigate the west side of the San Joaquin Valley?” said Jackson Minasian, an attorney for the Stanford Vina Ranch Irrigation Company, in Tehama County. “Will it be waste and unreasonable use to serve water to the city of San Francisco, a sanctuary city?”
Rather than face potential legal battles, particularly when Brown needed the political support of local water agencies for his plan to build two massive tunnels under the Delta, the governor dropped the issue.
But now the state is mired in a severe drought again. The last two years in California have been the driest back to back since 1976-77. Reservoirs are at record-low levels.
Last Monday, the state water board dusted off the rules and said it will take public comment on them until Dec. 23, with a vote on Jan. 4.
The proposed rules are again written on an emergency basis. That means they would expire in 270 days.
They also lack several of the provisions that were in the Brown administration’s rules, including requiring restaurants to serve water only on request, and requiring hotels and motels to post notices telling guests they can choose not to have towels and linens washed daily.
Officials at Westlands Water District and the San Francisco PUC did not respond this week to questions about the new rules.
Ajami said many water agencies want to sell as much water as possible in non-drought years to keep profits up. And she said she understands why they fervently guard water rights. But the world’s climate is changing, she noted.
“We are experiencing hotter, drier droughts in more frequent cycles,” she said. “This is our new normal. We have to seriously reevaluate how to use our water.”
