Cities exempted from state’s mandatory water-saving targets

Santa Rosa and seven other North Bay water suppliers were officially exempted Tuesday from state-mandated water conservation targets after showing that Lake Sonoma holds enough supply to sustain the region for three more drought years.

The local water retailers were among 343 agencies statewide that qualified for a zero percent water-saving standard, the State Water Resources Control Board said Tuesday, ending the state mandates imposed last year.

“It’s a testament to our community’s ability to save water,” said Brad Sherwood, spokesman for the Sonoma County Water Agency, which delivers water to the eight local suppliers.

Jennifer Burke, deputy director of water resources for Santa Rosa, said the exemption was “great news for our community” and urged city water customers to “continue to use water wisely.”

The news was a bit anticlimactic, however, because the Water Agency had reported in June that Lake Sonoma would hold a healthy 178,398 acre feet of water at the end of September in 2019, following three dry years comparable to 2013 through 2015.

That finding met the so-called “stress test” established by the state water board to acknowledge local water supplies and give local providers more autonomy to set their own conservation targets.

As a result, the Santa Rosa City Council in June rescinded the mandatory curbs on outdoor water use adopted in August 2014. The action eliminated both a city conservation target of reducing water use by 20 percent and the state mandate for a 16 percent reduction, the latter with civil liabilities of up to $10,000 a day for water wasters.

Felicia Marcus, the state water board chairwoman, said in a press release Tuesday the “stress test” approach was adopted “so that local agencies could demonstrate their ability to supply water under extended drought conditions.”

But, she added, Californians should not abandon their water-stingy habits.

The shift, she said, “is not a license to abandon conservation because one thing we know is we can’t know what next year or the next will bring.”

Two weeks ago, the state reported that local water suppliers had saved 1.75 million acre feet of water - enough to supply 8.8 million people for a year - in the 13 months since mandatory conservation goals were established.

On Tuesday, the board made it official that 343 local water suppliers had qualified for exemption from the state mandates. Thirty-six suppliers fell short of the three-year water supply standard and accepted conservation goals of 2 percent to 34 percent, and 32 suppliers retained their existing standard.

Santa Rosa, Windsor, Rohnert Park and Petaluma were officially relieved of their 16 percent state mandates. Valley of the Moon Water District and Marin Municipal Water District shed 20 percent mandates. North Marin Water District dropped a 24 percent mandate and Sonoma a 28 percent mandate.

The absence of mandates only runs through January, and the state board said it will renew conservation orders in February if drought conditions persist and statewide conservation levels “falter significantly.”

Meanwhile, some state water prohibitions remain, including bans on hosing off sidewalks and driveways, washing cars with hoses that lack a shut-off nozzle and lawn watering that causes runoff.

You can reach Staff Writer Guy Kovner at 707-521-5457 or guy.kovner@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @guykovner.