■ Benicia’s emergency restrictions on outdoor use passed in July
Starting Thursday, Benicia residents will be allowed to use automatic sprinklers just one day a week, said Graham Wadsworth, public works director and city engineer.
City water customers may choose whether to water Saturdays or Sundays, but will be limited to one day or the other and to the hours between 7 p.m. and 8 a.m.
“The restrictions are part of the city’s emergency outdoor water restrictions ordinance, which was adopted by the Benicia City Council in July,” Wadsworth said. The ordinance applies to both residential and commercial customers, he said.
“This emergency ordinance was designed to further encourage water reductions in light of the serious drought plaguing California and its impact on Benicia’s water supply,” Wadsworth said.
According to past staff reports, Benicia normally counts on the State Water Project (SWP) for about 85 percent of the approximately 10,000 acre-feet of water the community consumes each year. The city pays for about 17,000 acre-feet, no matter how much water SWP allocates to contractors.
But in November 2013, SWP officials announced that because of the drought, contractors would get just 5 percent of their contracted amounts in 2014.
The news got worse early this year, when the state declared no water would be allocated. Later, project officials decided to let contractors get 5 percent of their contracted amounts starting in September.
Benicia’s emergency water ordinance has different watering restrictions for summer and winter, Wadsworth noted.
Landscapes typically require less water in fall and winter, he said.
“Cooler temperatures, shorter daylight hours and moisture from fog and rain all combine to reduce the water demands of a typical landscape,” said David Wenslawski, Benicia water quality technician.
“Often little, if any, irrigation is needed during the cooler months.”
Residents and commercial customers, as well as city employees, have taken the drought seriously, city officials said.
“Benicians have been on a water diet. They have reduced water use by 18 percent, and can achieve 20 percent and more with the winter water restrictions,” Mayor Elizabeth Patterson said. “I am very proud of our community and its water ethics.”
That 18-percent reduction measures the difference in water consumption in the same time frame this year and in 2013, Wadsworth said.
The city’s website has recommended that residential and commercial customers water only at early morning or late at night to reduce evaporation; adjust sprinklers to prevent spraying on hard surfaces and creating runoff; cut back the time sprinklers operate by at least two minutes; landscape with plants that need little water; and install drip irrigation systems.
Indoors, water can be saved by taking showers that last no more than five minutes, by checking and repairing leaks and by installing high-efficiency appliances and fixtures.
Through the city Web page www.beniciasaveswater.org, water customers can apply for rebates and laundry-to-landscaping graywater kits.
Water customers also can call the city’s water conservation team at 707-746-4380 or email them at water@ci.benicia.ca.us.
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