[Water_news] 2. DWR'S CALIFORNIA WATER NEWS: SUPPLY - 5/15/08

Department of Water Resources

California Water News

A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment 

 

May 15, 2008

 

2. Supply –

 

EBMUD adopts water-rationing rules

San Francisco Chronicle

 

Ration water properly

Contra Costa Times

 

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EBMUD adopts water-rationing rules

San Francisco Chronicle – 5/15/08

By Carolyn Jones, staff writer

 

Quicker showers? No problem. Less laundry? Easy. But let a lush, freshly seeded lawn turn brown? Never, say water customers in the East Bay.

Faced with mandatory rationing by the East Bay Municipal Utility District, thousands of customers in Alameda and Contra Costa counties Wednesday began contemplating a long, hot summer of restricted water use. The utility is asking residents to cut back 19 percent or possibly face fines, surcharges and water service shut-offs.

 

"I've got half an acre of lawn, a swimming pool and three teenagers," said Alex Theriault, a contractor from Danville whose bi-monthly water bills top $1,400. "I can't afford not to cut back. But I'm not losing the lawn. My kids like it too much. And I'm not losing the pool. I like the pool."

 

The district's Board of Directors voted Tuesday to ban a wide range of water-guzzling activities, such as washing cars without a shut-off nozzle on the hose, watering a lawn more than three days a week or when it creates excess runoff, washing sidewalks and filling ponds and fountains with nonrecycled water.

 

The rules will be enforced by district "water police," who will patrol the streets in search of water-wasters and act on tips from neighbors, district spokesman Charles Hardy said.

 

"Everyone can be water police," he said. "You'd be surprised how many neighbors call in when they've been trying hard to conserve water and they see someone out there washing their car without a shut-off nozzle."

 

When the water police catch a scofflaw wet-handed, they'll warn him or her to turn off the hose immediately. If offenders persist, they risk having their water shut off, Hardy said.

 

The district's board will vote on a proposed rate structure at its July 8 meeting. The proposal calls for a 10 percent rate increase for residences, but customers who comply with the 19 percent cutback will actually see their bills go down.

 

Customers who cut back less than 10 percent will face a $2 surcharge for every 748 gallons they use beyond their allotment. Customers who already use scant amounts of water - less than 100 gallons a day - would be exempt from the surcharges and 10 percent rate increase.

The new rates would take effect Aug. 1.

 

Water customers on the eastern side of the hills were mostly good-spirited about the rationing.

 

"We've been really lax about water here, compared to other countries," said Debbie Wilson, a mom from Pleasant Hill who brought her children to play in the recycled-water fountain in downtown Pleasant Hill.

 

"Right now, our automatic sprinklers come on every day," she said. "We'll change that. We need to have water for more important things."

Scott Vaisnor, a general contractor from Pleasant Hill, said his family used 400 gallons a day until they bought a low-flow washer and dishwasher and started cutting back in other ways.

 

But he would have trouble giving up the lawn, he said Wednesday as he washed his Toyota in his driveway.

 

"I'd say goodbye to washing the car first," he said. "It's a lot harder to look at a dead lawn than a dirty car."

 

Vaisnor doesn't have to make that choice quite yet. He and others in parts of central and eastern Contra Costa County get their water from the Contra Costa Water District, which is urging its customers to conserve but has stopped short of rationing.

 

"We do have adequate water supplies, but we're not immune to the same conditions affecting East Bay MUD," said Patty Friesen, public affairs director. "If we have another dry year we might have to go to rationing."

 

The East Bay district received half the runoff it was expecting this year and anticipates a shortage of 200,000 acre-feet by Oct. 1, Hardy said.

To help customers meet the rationing goals, the district is giving away low-flow showerheads, shut-off nozzles, aerators for kitchen and bathroom faucets and dye pills to detect toilet leaks.

 

Customers on the western side of the hills, where lawns and swimming pools are scarce, can meet the 19 percent reduction goal by cutting back on indoor water use, Hardy said.

 

Residents can check their toilets for leaks, install low-flow appliances and aerate their faucets. Even minor changes, like turning off the faucet while brushing teeth, can make a difference, Hardy said.

 

"Don't stay in the shower for 20 minutes," he said. "Just clean up, get out and keep singing."#

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/05/15/BA0710ME05.DTL

 

 

Ration water properly

Contra Costa Times – 5/15/08

MediaNews editorial

 

AFTER TWO RELATIVELY dry years and a lower-than-average snow pack, the East Bay Municipal Utility District has no choice but to impose water rationing. But the utility does have a choice as to how to do it.

 

Unfortunately, EBMUD is heading toward a flawed method of getting its 1.3 million customers to cut back on water use.

 

If the water district had more extensive storage capacity, perhaps rationing would not be necessary, especially in the absence of a drought. But that is not the case, and water usage needs to be reduced now to prevent more severe shortages in the coming months.

 

EBMUD officials have a goal of 15 percent reduction in water use for businesses and residents, with a conservation target of 19 percent for residents of single-family homes.

 

These overall goals seem to be appropriate and should not be too great a hardship for most water users. However, EBMUD officials need to reconsider their proposed method of rationing.

 

The chief flaw is basing water rationing on average use over the past three years. Many EBMUD customers have been conserving their water use for many years, while others have not.

 

Using average water use over the last three years would penalize those who were most diligent in conserving water. Residents who have not been careful about water use could cut back 19 percent and still use far more water than conservation-minded neighbors.

 

EBMUD's plans to increase rates and use surcharges to enforce rationing make sense. But it would be more equitable to base water-use policy on the number of gallons used per person in a household.

 

Those who already are frugal water consumers might not have to cut back much, or at all, while those who use excessive amounts of water might have to cut back more than 19 percent.

 

EBMUD has suggested some reasonable ways to reduce water usage such as prohibiting excessive use of outdoor watering or washing cars without a hose with a shutoff nozzle.

 

Bans on fountains that do no recycle water and watering sidewalks also make sense.

 

These restrictions should not impose major hardships on anyone and are effective ways to significantly cut back on water use.

But such restrictions already have been self-imposed by many of EBMUD's customers. It would be unfair to force them to reduce water use by the same percentage as those who have not taken any action to conserve.

 

EBMUD has the ability to gather the necessary data to base conservation on a gallons-per-person basis for residential consumption. That is the fairest method to effectively ration water without imposing undue hardships on those who have been the most responsible in the past in using water.#

http://www.contracostatimes.com/opinion/ci_9251396