IE Business Daily Business news for the Inland Empire.
The State Water Resources Control Board has voted to extend emergency water conservation measures through most of 2016.
Board members voted 3-0 Tuesday to leave current restrictions on urban water use in place through Oct. 31, said Katheryn Landau, an environmental scientist with the board’s groundwater program.
The board’s vote follows Gov. Jerry Brown’s executive order in November, which required the board to extend statewide conservation measures should drought conditions continue through January, Landau said.
‘We’re only about halfway through the rainy season, and it’s too early to say if we’re going to have above-average snowfall and rainfall this year,” Landau said. “We won’t know that until sometime in April.”
The board, which was absent two members, agreed to revisit the issue after April 1. That means the conservation measures – which come from Gov. Brown’s mandate to cut water use statewide use by 25 percent – could be scaled back, depending on how the rest of the rainy season plays out.
Those conservation measures, which include tight restrictions on outdoor residential use, went into effect last month and were set to expire Feb. 13.
The board also voted to ease restrictions on California’s 412 urban water suppliers: each could have the amount of water they’re allowed to distribute raised from two percent to eight percent, depending on how well they’ve met their conservation goals to date, Landau said.
When the restrictions were implemented, suppliers were ordered to reduce their supplies by anywhere from eight to 36 percent.
Some Inland Empire water suppliers aren’t being rewarded for their conservation efforts, said John Rossi, general manager of the Western Municipal Water District in Riverside.
“Although we fought for true equity for our customers, we only received a fraction of fairness,” said Rossi, who attended Tuesday’s water board meeting in Sacramento, in a statement posted on the district’s website.
