Jerry Brown renews call for conservation; Benicia lawn-watering, other limits begin Wednesday

Saying it’s only one approach to California’s severe drought, Gov. Jerry Brown last week signed two pieces of emergency legislation, Assembly Bills 91 and 92, that he said will speed up access to more than $1 billion in funding and critical water infrastructure projects.

“But make no mistake,” Brown said, “from Modoc to Imperial County, rain is not in the forecast, and every Californian must be doing their utmost to conserve water.”

Benicians have made strides and are complying with the governor’s call to cut back water consumption by 20 percent. Citywide spring and summer water restrictions designed to keep that trend going begin Wednesday.

Brown, accompanied by legislative leaders from both major parties, announced his intent to sign the legislation he said accelerates emergency food aid, water recycling, conservation awareness, water system modeling, species tracking, infrastructure and flood protection funding.

The governor said the legislation builds on “unprecedented action” from the State Water Resources Control Board, which he said has strived to prohibit wasting water and to encourage Californians to conserve.

Its emergency regulations are the most stringent statewide measures in state history, he said. They include strict limits on outdoor irrigation, reduced to two days a week in most places, as well as bans on hosing down outdoor surfaces, decorative water fountains that don’t recirculate water and car washing without an automatic shut-off nozzle.

The board also requires bars and restaurants to only serve water upon request and hotels to ask guests staying multiple nights whether linens and towels need to be washed.

Benicia Mayor Elizabeth Patterson, who has experience working in state water issues, said she has seen additional needs that also need funding.

“Money should be targeted for waste water treatment and low interest loans — 0 percent to 2 percent — depending on criteria to be established,” said Patterson, who has worked on the California Water Plan for the Department of Water Resources. “For instance, Benicia is very dependent on SWP (State Water Project) water, and if we recycled the waste water for industrial use we would essentially be broadening our water portfolio and taking pressure off the SWP.”

Patterson said agencies need to consider restructuring their water fees “so that the bulk of the fee is for fixed costs and the volumetric is based on a water budget suitable for typical neighborhoods, land use and per capita.”

This isn’t a new concept, she said.

“These are the kinds of things that the electric utilities adopted in the mid-’70s when state law required all new power plants to conserve 10 percent,” she said. “The utilities figured out that the cheapest energy supply was conservation — no new power plants — and shifted their pricing to fixed costs with tiered pricing. Thus the incentive for conservation is strong and cost effective.”

Brown has pushed for passage of Proposition 1, a $7.5-billion water bond he called “the most significant statewide investment in water supply infrastructure projects in decades.” That package provides for surface and groundwater storage, ecosystem and watershed protection and restoration, as well as drinking water protection.

He also has signed legislation creating a framework for local, sustainable management of groundwater, which accounts for about one-third of California’s water supply.

In the past two years state and federal water regulators have limited water allocations from the State Water Project and Central Valley Project for agricultural users to historically low levels — between zero and 20 percent of contracted amounts. Junior water rights have also been drastically curtailed, the governor noted.

Meanwhile, the California Department of Food and Agriculture has provided $10 million in grants to underwrite more than 150 water conservation projects Brown said will help save hundreds of thousands of acre-feet of water statewide.

The legislation he just signed earmarks an additional $10 million to continue this program, he said.

The state also has committed more than $870 million in drought relief since last year to help drought-affected communities and provide funding to better use local water supplies, Brown said.

He and U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell announced last month that nearly $20 million in federal drought relief would be made available for California’s Central Valley Project.

Patterson concurred that improvements need to be made in the state’s enormous agriculture industry. California leads other states in farm income. The bulk of the revenue, more than 70 percent, comes from crops, and the balance is livestock-related, she noted.

The state produces about 200 different crops. California farmers grow the bulk of many American-produced crops, from almonds and walnuts to multiple fruits. The state also is a leader in growing lettuce, tomatoes, broccoli, carrots and other vegetables, and is a large producer of several grains and other products consumed by both people and livestock.

Only Texas grows more cotton and livestock products, and only Florida grows more citrus.

Patterson acknowledged the importance of agriculture to the state, but said some improvements are needed.

“I agree that we need to have better planning and management of what is grown where and how,” she said. “We have some of the best agricultural lands in Solano County in the whole state and can grow a wide variety of crops.

“On the other hand, there are orchards planted in the Central Valley without much regard for soil, water, climate change and groundwater overdrafting, as the result of poorer soils, warmer evenings keeping the soil warmer and thus needing more water.”

The current, multi-year drought is not Patterson’s only concern.

“Climate change is changing many factors of agriculture, including increased water demand, pests, diseases and so forth,” she said.

“The state should have an agricultural adaptive management plan that would take into consideration soil, climate, crop type and sustainable groundwater management.

“Some people see local agriculture as key to food security and others think that we should add larger agricultural operations to that concept. Food production is vital to sustainable economics and benefits to human capital in this state.

“We seem to lack the vision of protecting prime farmlands, rangelands and other important farm areas based on the fundamentals: soil, water, climate,” she said. “The last crop is urban sprawl, shopping malls and parking lots.”

Brown isn’t the only one in Sacramento urging action. State Sen. Bob Hertzberg, D-Van Nuys, has introduced a bill that would require regional water management officials to report earthquake vulnerabilities in their water systems.

“Public policymakers cannot ignore forecasts showing a greater than 99 percent chance of a 6.7 earthquake within the next 30 years,” Hertzberg said. “Much of California’s infrastructure, including key water-delivery systems, remains seismically unsafe and extremely vulnerable.”

Past severe earthquakes, from the Loma Prieta magnitude-6.9 earthquake, the Northridge magnitude-6.9 quake and the famous 1906 San Francisco quake, at 7.8 magnitude, caused severe damage to water infractructure, he said.

He has introduced Senate Bill 664 that he said would require water management plans to include an assessment or evaluation of seismic vulnerability of water infractructure, and make those safety upgrades eligible for Integrated Regional Water Management funding.

In other developments, the State Water Resources Control Board has adopted an emergency regulation that curtails water diversions in three Sacramento tributaries if those changes don’t meet minimum flows that serve some of the last self-sustaining populations of threatened fish.

The board also has approved an emergency regulation that gives the panel the right to collect information it needs to manage the state’s limited water supplies.

“We are experiencing the lowest snowpack and the driest January in recorded history, and communities around the state are already suffering severely from the prior three years of drought,” said the State Water Board’s chairperson, Felicia Marcus.

“If the drought continues through next winter and we do not conserve more, the consequences could be even more catastrophic than they already are.”

Marcus said the board’s action “is just a tune-up and a reminder to act, and we will consider more significant actions in the weeks to come.”

Brown said he has been taking action against the drought for some time. He formed a drought task force in December 2013 to respond to statewide impacts.

By January 2014, he declared the drought was a severe emergency, and his administration finished a comprehensive Water Action Plan that he said would make California more resilient to droughts and flooding through management of water and habitats, and would help provide water to those in need.

Brown has asked all residents and business owners to reduce their water use by 20 percent and to prevent water waste. Two state websites, SaveOurWater.com and drought.ca.gov, provide information on ways to conserve and detail the state’s approaches to dealing with the drought.

Benicia’s own regulations change Wednesday, focusing on outdoor watering that accounts for about 50 percent of the water used by residents and business owners, city water quality technician David Wenslawski said.

Starting Wednesday, those with addresses ending in even numbers may water only on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Those with street numbers ending in odd numbers may water only on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. All watering will need to be done before 8 a.m. or after 7 p.m.

It’s likely the ground doesn’t need to be watered even that often, Wenslawski said. He said residents should stick an 8-inch screwdriver into the ground as a test; if the screwdriver can be pressed more than three inches into the ground, the landscape needs no additional water.

Free services and rebates are available to help residential and business customers use less water, including those for purchasing more efficient clothes washers, for upgrading to water-smart irrigation controllers and for replacing lawns with low-water-use plants and drip irrigation, Public Works Director Graham Wadsworth said.

“Free home and business water use surveys are also available to help customers identify potential water saving actions,” Wadsworth said.

The city also is providing free table toppers to restaurants as reminders to customers that water is served only by request in compliance with State Water Resources Control Board regulations.

Those interested may read Benicia’s “Water Wise” tips on the website BeniciaSavesWater.org and may call the Water Conservation Team at 707-746-4380 or email the team at water@ci.benicia.ca.us.