SACRAMENTO >> On the heels of what is becoming one of the wettest rainfall seasons ever recorded in California, Gov. Jerry Brown on Friday rescinded the drought emergency order he signed in 2014 while signaling new legislative efforts to maintain water conservation measures.
“This drought emergency is over, but the next drought could be around the corner,” Brown said in a statement. “Conservation must remain a way of life.”
Brown is making permanent the bans on wasteful water practices, like hosing off sidewalks, and requiring water agencies to continue to report their water use every month to the state.
At the same time, state agencies Friday announced a long-term plan to better prepare California for future droughts with continued water conservation efforts. The framework requires new legislation to establish long-term water conservation measures and improved planning for more frequent and severe droughts.
“This framework is about converting Californians’ response to the drought into an abiding ethic,” California Department of Water Resources Acting Director Bill Croyle said in a statement. “Technically, the drought is over, but this framework extends and expands our dry-year habits. Careful, sparing use of water from backyards to businesses and farm fields will help us endure the next inevitable drought.”
Brown’s executive order lifts the drought emergency in all California counties except Fresno, Kings, Tulare and Tuolumne, where emergency drinking water projects will continue to help address diminished groundwater supplies, according to the governor’s release.
Felicia Marcus, chair of the State Water Resources Control Board, said lifting the emergency drought order in the Central Valley counties would handcuff the state’s current efforts “to get water to folks who don’t have it.”
In downtown San Jose, several people said they would continue their water conservation efforts.
“I don’t think it will make a difference, we use less amounts of water, we will continue to be more focused on conserving it,” Eejs Phope, 26, said of Brown lifting the drought state of emergency.
Claudia Lopez, 22, said she will continue to take shorter showers and use laundry settings that require less water.
Rohan Kekatpure, 35, expressed concern that declaring the end of the drought could eliminate some people’s water conservation efforts.
“It is over but that does not mean that we go on sprinkling our lawns twice a day,” Kekatpure said. “Even though it might be over in the short-term, we have no knowledge of how it may affect us again in the future. Next time we might be in a drought for eight years so we have to alter our behavior regardless of whether we are out of drought in the short term or not. It has to be a permanent change in our behavior.”
The state’s plan “Making Water Conservation a California Way of Life” was prepared by the Department of Water Resources, the State Water Resources Control Board, the Public Utilities Commission, Department of Food and Agriculture and the Energy Commission.
Some of the key elements of the plan include:
Bans on wasteful practices, such as hosing sidewalks and watering lawns after rain.
Technical assistance, financial incentives and standards to guide water suppliers’ efforts to detect and repair leaks.
Requiring urban water suppliers to prepare water shortage contingency plans, including a drought risk assessment every five years.
Requiring more agricultural water suppliers to submit plans that quantify measures to increase water use efficiency and develop adequate drought plans.
Monthly reporting by urban water suppliers on water usage, conservation achieved and enforcement efforts
Improved drought planning for small water suppliers and rural communities.
“Californians stepped up big time during the drought,” said Felicia Marcus, chair of the State Water Resources Control Board. “This plan allows us to build on that success and prepare for the longer and more frequent droughts we know are coming under climate change, in a way that is equitable and cost-effective. Efficiency is the cheapest and smartest way to extend our water resources.”
The drought that spanned water years 2012 through 2016 included the driest four-year statewide precipitation on record (2012-2015) and the smallest Sierra-Nevada snowpack on record (5 percent in 2015, according to the governor’s office. The years 2014, 2015 and 2016 were California’s first, second and third warmest years in terms of statewide average temperatures.
Friday, the statewide Sierra snowpack stood at 161 percent of its historic average, a massive accumulation of new water. It’s the largest snowpack since 2011, when it was 171 percent of normal on April 1.
A year ago, 97 percent of California was in drought, according to federal scientists. Today, only 9 percent of the state remains in drought conditions, thanks to a parade of “Pineapple Express” storms that have created the wettest winter ever measured in the Northern Sierra, with precipitation 229 percent of the historic average.
Friday, eight key weather stations from Lake Tahoe to Mount Shasta measured an average of 86 inches of precipitation since Oct. 1, making it the second wettest on record. A normal year is 50 inches, and this year’s total is even running above the monster winters of 1997-98 and 1982-83.
