California State Water Resources Control Board decided Tuesday that Benicians must cut back their use by 28 percent, not the 20 percent originally issued as a guideline last year and as a statewide mandate this year.

The board’s decision gets a 10-day Office of Administrative Law review before it becomes effective.

While the board was examining communities statewide and deciding how to classify them into tiers, Benicia Public Works Director Graham Wadsworth was praising residents for reducing their water use by 22.7 percent during the past 12 months compared to 2013.

Compared to some cities and counties — and definitely when contrasted with state numbers — Benicia has managed to meet both voluntary and mandatory requirements issued by Gov. Jerry Brown.

In February, Benicians’ conservation rate reached 28.5 percent, compared to a state average of just 2.8 percent. In March, statewide reduction improved less than 1 percent, while Benicians reduced water use by 30.2 percent compared to the same time in 2013, Wadsworth said.

He said residents and business owners dare not let up their efforts, particularly since Brown on April 1 ordered an immediate 25-percent mandatory reduction statewide.

The State Water Board, in interpreting the governor’s executive order, broke the state into its agencies and based its tier assignments on multiple factors, including daily residential gallons per capita, local rainfall, temperature, evaporation rates, population growth and density, lot sizes, income and water prices.

Wadsworth said he has been hoping the state would look favorably at Benicia’s early compliance with Brown’s request for voluntary cutbacks and at its pursuit of prospective water-saving projects. He had hoped the board would place the city in a better tier.

Vallejo is in Tier 4, required to cut back just 16 percent. That is based on water saved, which is just 9 percent, but also on that city’s residential per-capita consumption of 91.3 gallons a day.

Across the Carquinez Strait, Martinez is in Tier 5, having to save 20 percent after having already cut back its consumption 15 percent but having a residential per-capita consumption of 95.5 gallons a day.

Fairfield also is in Tier 5, or the 20-percent cutback level. That city reduced its consumption by 11 percent, and its residents averaged consumption of 106.7 gallons a day.

By comparison, Benicia saved 21 percent, according to the Water Board’s records. But on average, each Benicia resident uses 143.9 gallons of potable water a day, a fact that encouraged the board to put Benicia in Tier 7.

Tier 7 cities will need to reduce consumption by 28 percent compared to 2013 numbers.

This is an increase from the original 20 percent level, Wadsworth explained, rather than 28 percent on top of the 20 percent residents already had achieved.

Benicia shares Tier 7 with such cities as South Pasadena, which saved only 11 percent; Tracy, that saved 23 percent; and La Habra Public Works, that increased its consumption 6 percent. Tier 7 cities have per-capita consumption that ranges from 130 to 169 gallons a day.

Some communities have greater challenges, according to the Water Board. Residents in some places will be required to conserve at least 36 percent compared to 2013 numbers.

Among those are residents of Madera County, Merced, Redding and Rio Vista.

Each month, the Water Board will track water consumption to determine which cities are on track and which may need more prodding.

Spokesperson George Kostyrko said the state average of 25 percent savings in potable urban water amounts to 1.2 million acre-feet of water during the next nine months, “or nearly as much water as is currently in Lake Oroville.”

Wadsworth said California has drought cycles every 10 to 20 years. “The last two severe droughts were in the mid-1970s and the late 1980s to early 1990s,” he said.

Since Brown declared the state to be in a severe drought in January 2014, Benicia learned it would get none, then merely 5 percent of its contracted State Water Project water, for which it must pay before allocations are announced. As a result, the Council authorized the expenditure of $900,000 for water and adjusted how it uses some of the water it has had in reserves.

Normally, the city buys about 10,000 acre-feet of water each year, and the State Water Project normally supplies 75 percent to 85 percent of the city’s water. Another 10 percent to 25 percent comes from the Solano Project. Lake Herman historically is the city’s emergency water supply and temporary storage reservoir, Wadsworth said.

“The city is managing its water supply to maximize the use of the allocated State Water Project water, conserve Solano Project water that can be stored (or) banked in Lake Berryessa, maximize Lake Herman water storage and delivery and make improvements to the components of the water infrastructure to ensure reliability and redundancy,” he said.

He said he expected the city’s efforts to ensure an adequate supply through December 2017.

But overall, statewide water-saving efforts have been disappointing, Kostyrko said.

“Since the State Water Board adopted its initial emergency urban conservation regulation in July 2014, voluntary statewide conservation efforts have reached 9 percent overall — far short of the 20 percent Governor Brown called for in 2014,” he said.

“This is the drought of the century, with greater impact than anything our parents and grandparents experienced, and we have to act accordingly,” said Felicia Marcus, chairperson of the State Water Resources Control Board, after the strict mandatory conservation numbers were released.

“We set a high but achievable bar, with the goal of stretching urban California’s water supply. We have to face the reality that this drought may continue and prepare as if that’s the case,” she said.

“If it rains and snows next winter, we celebrate. If the drought continues, we’ll be glad we took difficult but prudent action today.”

“It’s the responsible thing to do.”

Kostyrko said each person should keep water consumption down to 55 gallons or fewer each day. The easiest place to cut back is in outdoor watering, he said.

“On average, 50 percent of total residential use is outdoors, in some cases up to 80 percent,” he said.

“To save water now, during this drought emergency, the regulation targets these outdoor uses. Communities that are approaching, at or below the indoor target are assigned a modest conservation standard, while communities that use water well above the indoor target will be asked to do much more.

“This likely will result in all communities significantly cutting back on outdoor watering, particularly ornamental landscapes surrounding homes, institutions and businesses, resulting in many golden landscapes statewide,” Marcus said.

Prohibited are irrigation with potable water of the ornamental turf on public street medians and outside newly built homes and other structures; using potable water to wash sidewalks and driveways or in decorative water features that don’t recirculate the water; allowing water to run off, using hoses without automatic shutoff nozzles to wash cars and watering outdoors during and within 48 hours after a measurable rainfall. Restaurants no loonger may serve water to customers unless the person asks for it, and hotels and motels must give guests the option not to have linens and towels laundered daily.

Individuals can be fined $500 a day for violating the state’s water orders, and water agencies that flaunt cease and desist orders could face $10,000-a-day fines.

“This will be a heavy lift for some, but we believe that the regulatory strategy adopted today is doable,” Marcus said. “In fact, many communities that have focused on conserving water have already achieved significant conservation without losing their landscapes.”

In the future, should the drought continue, the board may need to look at other ways to save water, she said, including recycling, stormwater capture and desalinization.

“In the short run, however, conservation is the cheapest, fastest and smartest way to become more resilient in the face of drought today and climate change in the future,” Marcus said.

If the Office of Administrative Law concurs with the Water Board’s decision, the regulation would be effective immediately and last for 270 days, Kostyrko said.