If you think the walk from your car to the shoreline of Folsom Lake is far already, just wait a couple months. Summer is coming and with just under 10 inches of rain accumulated for the season—less than 50% of the normal annual rainfall—we’re in a drought State of Emergency as declared by Gov. Brown in January.
Mandated Water Reductions. The City of Sacramento put in place a mandatory 20-30% citywide reduction and has water enforcement officers sweeping the city weekly. Consequences for violating the mandates include a first offense warning and second, third, and fourth fines that increase with each violation.
That might sound a bit like the City is out to get us, but really this is more about taking necessary measures to ensure the city has an adequate water supply in a year when supply is desperately low. It is, nevertheless, good to simply know before you owe. The mandates currently in place for City of Sacramento residents:
- 20-30% across the board reduction by customers.
- Outdoor watering reduced to 2 days per week based on address—addresses ending in odd numbers can only water on Tuesday and Saturdays; addresses ending in even numbers can only water on Wednesdays and Sundays.
- Watering must take place before 10am and after 7pm on your scheduled watering day.
- No watering is allowed on Mondays, Thursdays, or Fridays.
- Car washing is only permitted on your watering day and hoses must have an automatic shut-off nozzle.
- Excessive water run-off is prohibited.
- Fines are double what they were last year and water enforcement is increased throughout the city.
While measures for all cities in the county (Roseville, Elk Grove, Fair Oaks, etc) mirror most of these mandates, each city has it’s own list of conservation ordinances and some cities still have voluntary measures in place. But as the weather warms, don’t be surprised if all cities follow suit and make the voluntary reductions mandatory—and if we aren’t able to effectively reduce usage as a metro area overall, don’t be surprised if mandates get stricter.
How it’s Monitored and Consequences of Non-Compliance. Jessica Hess, spokesperson for the City of Sacramento Dept. of Utilities, indicated that studies estimate that 65% of water in a single family home is used for outdoor irrigation. By focusing on reducing the number of watering days from the City’s previous 3-day ordinance to 2 days, overall citywide usage is most feasibly decreased by 20% without needing to monitor individual households. What is monitored is water waste and watering on a non-watering day. The goal in citing households breaking this mandate is not, Hess said, to incur fines from residents and businesses.
“We don’t want to get your money. We just want you to comply,” said Hess, pointing out that’s why only a written notice is the first action taken toward violators. “We try very hard to make this about an education process…Most people are more than willing that comply and help us out once they know they violated the rules.”
That being said, fines are still in place for the less willing. A second offense is $50 (up from $25 last year), a third is $200, and fourth and every subsequent is $1000. Second offense fines can be waived by attending a 2-hour water conservation class—the equivalent of attending traffic school. In March, the City issued 555 first notices (up from 10 last year) and issued 6 second violation fines (up from 0 last year).
The Good News. The good news is reduction efforts are working. In February, Sacramento residents reduced water usage by 12% compared to average usage and in March 16%. City departments reduced usage by 54% through a variety of conservation, monitoring, and awareness efforts. Keep it up Sacramento!
The Bad News. The bad news is we have a long, dry season ahead of us. Warming weather always results in water usage spikes, Hess said, and we’ve only just begun to see days warm. It’s as important for the city as it is for our pockets to know before we grow—it’s better to have a little-less-than-lush lawn than a dried up lake.
“We hopefully won’t get to a point where the lake dries up to almost nothing,” said Hess. “The city is monitoring that situation pretty closely…[but] if it looks like our demand is out pacing our supply, we’re going to have to go back to counsel and ask them to adopt a more restrictive water conservation measure to ensure that we do have a adequate supply.”
“It’s gonna be a tough summer,” she added.
Tips for Reducing Water Usage. As Hess said, enforcing conservation efforts is about making this education an education. Some tips for reducing your household water usage:
- Grow water-wise plants.
- Use mulch or add compost to decrease evaporation and help soil store and absorb water.
- Take shorter showers and/or install water efficient shower heads (save 1-2.5 gallons/minute).
- Wash only full loads of laundry (save 15-45 gal/load).
- Fix leaky toilets (save 30-50 gal/day).
- Turn off water when brushing teeth or shaving (save 10 gal/day).
- Take advantage of the City’s rebates for water-efficient toilets, showers, and washing machines.
- Schedule a free Water Wise House Call to have a specialist identify potential water savings.
Report Misuse. If you see someone wasting water, make a completely anonymous call to 311. Enforcement officers will investigate and, if needed, will let them know how to conserve water and issue a warning.
For further information, visit www.sparesacwater.org.
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