Gov. Jerry Brown signed an executive order mandating water-saving measures Wednesday, months after similar actions were taken by some Santa Barbara County water agencies.
The State Water Resources Control Board came up with emergency regulations that are reportedly the harshest restrictions in California history. Brown’s order makes those regulations mandatory statewide for the first time ever, aiming for a 25 percent cut in potable urban water use compared with 2013 numbers.
Areas with high per-capita water use will be required to cut more water than areas that already conserve, according to the executive order.
Many of the statewide restrictions have already been adopted by water districts on the South Coast, such as limits on outdoor irrigation, bans on hosing down driveways and pavement, bans on running decorative fountains that don’t recirculate water, and having bars and restaurants only offer water when a customer asks for it.
Brown declared a drought in January 2014, but water use restrictions have been voluntary or mandated on a local level.
California has the lowest snowpack ever recorded this year, and Brown announced his executive order Wednesday from the Sierra-at-Tahoe Resort off Highway 50.
“Today we are standing on dry grass where there should be 5 feet of snow,” Brown said in a statement. “This historic drought demands unprecedented action.”
The State Water Resources Control Board is tasked with implementing the mandatory restrictions and directing local water suppliers to develop rate structures to maximize conservation.
The Montecito Water District approved a water shortage emergency surcharge for all customers, and the City of Santa Barbara is expected to approve drought rates later this month.
The state will also push conservation for commercial and industrial water uses such as school campuses, golf courses and cemeteries. Department of Water Resources staff will start a program to replace 50 million square feet of lawns with drought-tolerant landscapes to complement local programs that already provide rebates.
Brown’s executive order requires more water use reporting, including monthly reporting of water usage, conservation and enforcement actions by local water suppliers; information about groundwater basin supplies; and water use by agricultural water customers to watch for illegal diversions and “unreasonable use.”
The Governor’s Office already announced $1 billion in drought relief funding, but no local projects have been identified in the funding yet.
Assemblyman Das Williams’ office said Santa Barbara and Ventura counties are being added to the Drought Food Assistance Program, which was funded in March 2014 and now provides services to 29 California counties.
Water agencies that get water from Lake Cachuma have paid big money to build an emergency pumping facility that will pump water into the Tecolote Tunnel — which supplies Santa Barbara County’s South Coast with water — once reservoir levels drop too low to gravity-feed the intake towers of the water distribution system.
It’s still in standby mode, but the lake is currently at 28 percent of its storage capacity.
Santa Barbara County’s rainfall is 51 percent of normal, according to the county.
Click here for water-saving tips from Santa Barbara and from the state.
— Noozhawk news editor Giana Magnoli can be reached at gmagnoli@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.