Lake County >> Residents won’t see any changes associated with mandatory California water restrictions that went into effect Monday as water providers countywide are considered small agencies.
In response to Gov. Jerry Brown’s executive order on April 1 requiring the state to reduce its water consumption by 25 percent, about 400 urban water suppliers must now cut back use anywhere between 8 to 36 percent, numbers based on July 2013 consumption. Such reductions do not apply to water suppliers that provide service to 3,000 or less hookups, which for Lake County means no agencies are affected. Even so, most local water users have met the 20 percent goal for rural water agencies.
All but one of the 10 water systems run by Lake County Special Districts (LCSD) have been able to meet the water use reduction goals. Residents hooked up to the North Lakeport service area, however, have only managed to save 5 percent.
LCSD Compliance Coordinator Jan Coppinger said special districts will likely have to implement an emergency ordinance system that focuses on heavy water users.
“Most people are conserving,” Coppinger said, “but it’s the high users that are keeping it unbalanced.”
She said it will take about two months for implementations to take effect, and costumers will be notified beforehand.
“As any changes occur specific to someone’s water system that we manage, they will hear from us directly. We don’t want people to think we made changes that they are not aware of,” Coppinger said. “People will be given advance notice.”
Special districts will have to report water consumption for all of its systems to the State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) in December.
“If we come up with a way to get the 20 percent reduction we will satisfy requirements and not be forced to water on specific days or limit more consumption,” Coppinger said.
Lakeport City Manager Margaret Silveira said there is no major change from the city’s previous resolution put in place last fall.
Regulations under the ordinance comply with the SWRCB restrictions that apply to all California residents set forth last July. The SWRCB prohibits outdoor irrigation that causes runoff, washing a car using a hose that does not have a shut-off nozzle, washing down driveways or sidewalks and decorative fountains that are not recirculating.
Richard Sisco of Highlands Water, which serves Clearlake, describes its costumers as “conservative,” saying they’ve done well keeping water usage low.
“Most of them are seniors, and they don’t want to spend anymore than they have to,” Sisco said.
Golden State Water users, also in Clearlake, currently have outdoor irrigation restrictions with a two-day limit, according to customer service representative Ray Lopez. Customers who live at a residence with an address that ends with an even number can water Sunday and Wednesday between 7 p.m. and 8 a.m. Odd number residences can water Tuesday and Thursday at the same time.
“The main reason that they have those hours, essentially, is because there’s no sun so there’s less evaporation,” Lopez said.
There is no time limit, but Lopez said that a standard sized lawn should not be watered longer than 15 minutes.
He’s not aware of anything that will change in the future, and said the biggest thing is for customers to stick to the state irrigation regulations and limit activities that are considered water waste. It’s a sentiment shared by county water providers across the board: as long as costumers adhere to the state regulations, additional restrictions are unlikely.
