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Santa Clarita Valley water officials are bracing for stricter conservation efforts this week, after Gov. Jerry Brown mandated a 25 percent statewide reduction in water use

Santa Clarita Valley Water Agencies Expect More Cutbacks

Here’s a Water conservation fact sheet on the new water conservation measures for the drought from the state water board.

Santa Clarita Valley water officials are bracing for stricter conservation efforts this week, after Gov. Jerry Brown mandated a 25 percent reduction in water use for the state.


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The move is expected to leave state officials demanding more on the conservation effort from local agencies statewide. The state board is meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday this week, with local agencies expected to figure out their own respective measures by the following week.

Each water purveyor is in one of nine tiers, with each level representing that respective agency’s conservation target, related to its previous compliance efforts.

Gov. Jerry Brown declared drought conditions in January 2014, but recent data indicate there haven’t been much in the way of fines for violators of watering restrictions.

That’s could change after the State Water Resources Control Board meets May 5, according to officials, as Brown has called for much stricter fines.

“I think enhanced enforcement efforts are likely to be a part of the (outcome),” said Dirk Marks, water resources manager for the Castaic Lake Water Agency, adding “the state water board is going to require them to report enforcement activities, also.”

What exactly ends up being agreed upon will be decided in Sacramento, but the results will be mandated upon local water retailers by the state.

The Santa Clarita Valley Water Committee, which is comprised of representatives from the various Santa Clarita Valley water officials is set to meet next week, as well, and the decisions made by that board is going to guide local agencies and provide more information for the ratepayers and retailers alike.

Conservation requirements stepped up due to drought

The newer restrictions are a result of Brown’s April 1 executive order.

In light of the prolonged drought conditions, Brown’s order called for: the state hit a 25 percent reduction in potable urban water usage through February 2016; require commercial, industrial and institutional user to implement water efficiency measures; prohibit irrigation with potable water of ornamental turf in public street medians; and a prohibition on irrigating with potable water outside newly constructed homes with water not delivered by drip or microscopy systems.

The proposed changes to current water rules include these measures, according to the agenda on the State Water Board’s website.

The proposed regulations also call for agencies that service more than 3,000 connections to reduce their water production based on the tiers they are in, which are listed below for local agencies.

The rules would also call for the various retailers to report on their compliance efforts, as well as their reductions, which is where fines could come into play.

The tiers for water reduction

The state’s water board received more than 250 comments regarding the proposals, according to state officials.

If the plan is approved and implemented, it could save about 1.3 million acre-feet of water, which is about four times what Castaic Lake holds, on average.

Data released by the state shows agencies’ total water production, for 2013 and 2014, as well as the total amount of water saved, the percentage of savings, and their resulting tier and conservation standard.

The Santa Clarita Water Division, for example, which is operated as a water retailer by regional water wholesaler Castaic Lake Water Agency, sold 7,358,051,073 gallons in 2013, and 6,493,567,237 in 2014. The agency saved a total of 864,483,836 gallons, a total of 12 percent.

Those figures placed the Santa Clarita Water Division in the 8th tier, with a savings goal of 32 percent. This is the second highest tier.

The Valencia Water Co. sold 7,817,224,611 gallons of water in 2013 and 6,780,899,767 in 2014. The savings of 1,036,324,844 gallons earned a 13 percent conservation goal, and placed the agency in the 24 percent tier for an expected water conservation target.

The Newhall County Water Division sold 2,611,216,927 gallons of water in 2013, and 2,326,139,289 in 2014, for an 11 percent difference, with 285,077,638 gallons saved. The agency’s conservation target is listed at 28 percent.

Los Angeles County Public Waterworks Division 36 covers portions of Val Verde and unincorporated parts of Los Angeles County, but the data from the state only listed agencies with at least 3,000 connections.

The state offers two sample situations to explain how the conservation targets were created:

The Smith family of three learns that their water district must reduce water use by 12 percent. A manufacturing plant uses 20  percent of the water and cannot reduce its use. So, residents are told to reduce their use by 15 percent to meet the overall 12 percent target. The Smith family uses an average of 210 gallons per day (or about 70 gallons per person), 165 gallons for indoor use and 45 gallons for watering their small yard. To meet the 15% reduction requirement they must reduce total water use to about 180 gallons per day. This is equivalent to about 60 gallons per person per day.

The Jones family of four learn that their water district must reduce water use by 32 percent. An oil refinery uses 10 percent of the district’s water and cannot reduce its use. Their city also has many small businesses, and a golf course, which can reduce use by more than 10 percent. The residents must now reduce their use by 30 percent to meet the overall 32 percent target. The Jones family uses an average of 1,200 gallons per day (or about 300 gallons per person); 300 gallons for indoor use and 900 gallons outdoors, to irrigate a large yard that includes grass and fruit trees. To cut water use by 30 percent, the Jones’ must cut their water use by 360 gallons per day to 840 gallons which is equivalent to 210 gallons per person per day.

Do you have a news tip? Call us at (661) 298-1220, or drop us a line at community@hometownstation.com.

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Santa Clarita Valley Water Agencies Expect More Cutbacks

8 comments

  1. is this mandatory water conservation effort applicable to commercial and/or agricultural customers?

  2. Why are they allowing 10,000 new homes to be built at the 126 and 5 in addition to all the other new home
    tracks in this valley. There should be NOTHING built as long as we have to cut present usage…

  3. Its the 21,000 additional houses in Newhall Ranch and the other 15,000 houses proposed around the valley that should go. We are all being asked to lose our trees, our parks and everything else that keeps our homes and public areas cool in the heat so that there is water for tens of thousands of additional houses in the SCV or almonds and alfalfa that is exported to China. That’s not right.

    Whenever asked, Dan Masnada, head of CLWA, has repeatedly stated that there is plenty of water for new houses in Santa Clarita. If we are all being asked to allow our trees to die, that statement has to be a lie. All those houses will have lawns and swimming pools unless there are rules against this, which right now there are not.

    We DO have a water problem in California. A look at empty reservoirs is enough to make anyone worried. Wells in the upper Santa Clara River watershed are dry, but thousands of new housing units are still moving forward. New vineyards in Aqua Dulce pump water while neighboring wells go dry. What is going on here? Will no public official stand up and say there needs to be a moratorium on new development until we see if this drought is the “new normal”? We can’t continue to build urban sprawl housing and add thousands of new lawns and swimming pools if there is no water.

    Drought tolerant and especially native landscapes can be beautiful and use much less water. Time to include natives in all our landscaping, but we must not let our existing urban trees die. Existing residents should have some rights in all of this. Time to start speaking up, folks. Landuse planning matters.

    • I’m with you water watcher! How can they tell us we have to let our landscaping die when they are building all these new houses and apartments?! City of Santa Clarita and Santa Clarita Valley water companies, we see what is going on and are not ok with it. What about the new median in Newhall Ave. complete with irrigation system?! I thought we had a water shortage…

  4. I agree with waterwatcher. Bottom line is that developers have their hands in local and state politics. This isn’t just about lack of rain fall.

  5. Our SCV aquifers are nowhere near low levels and zero percent of our water comes from snow melt. Why do we need to conserve when our nearly full aquifers spill into the ocean via the Santa Clara river every moment of every day. I saw it myself, in person and it made me mad to see how rediculous it is to force us to cut back our water use when we use no water from the aqueduct. Our SCV water officials should be honest with us!

  6. The people of California need to wake up and start asking questions. First question I would ask is WHO are the folks on the water board? Nobody seems to know. They have the power and are NOT elected. Next question I would ask is if the board has this power and is NOT doing their job, as in providing the water we need, shouldn’t they be removed? We need to kill this train of Gov. Brown and use the money (80 Billion) to provide water to our State.

  7. Instead of building oil pipelines we should be building water pipelines. When the states back east are flooding, there is no reason we cannot capture that extra water and pipe it across the nation. Come on people, it’s only common sense! I agree with the post above, kill the train – capture the rain!

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About Perry Smith

Perry Smith is a print and broadcast journalist who has won several awards for his focused, hyperlocal community coverage in several different regions of the country. In addition to five years of experience covering the Santa Clarita Valley, Smith, a San Fernando Valley native, has worked in newspapers and news websites in Los Angeles, the Northwest, the Central Valley and the South, before coming to KHTS in 2012. To contact Smith, email him at Perry@hometownstation.com.