A flood of reactions flowed across the Inland Empire on Wednesday in the wake of the first-ever mandatory restrictions imposed on the state’s cities and water suppliers.
Citing the lowest California snowpack ever recorded, Gov. Jerry Brown ordered a 25 percent cut in urban water use.
And cities, counties and water agencies would bear much of that cut, or else pay up — $10,000 in fines for each day they’re out of compliance of their water allocation targets.
Many Inland Empire agencies on Wednesday were still evaluating the governor’s order. But locally, one thing was clear, even for leaders whose job it is to get water to Inland Empire customers: “This is an unprecedented announcement,” said Justin Scott-Coe, spokesman for the Montclair-based Monte Vista Water District, who added that his agency is reviewing the new requirements. “We’re living in interesting times.”
Those times are indeed interesting, as California endured an extremely dry March to compound what is already an extreme drought.
The East Valley Water District is evaluating what changes it might have to make and how to communicate with its residents in parts of San Bernardino, Highland and Redlands, said Kelly Malloy, the district’s spokeswoman and conservation manager.
“The big water saver, we recognize, is the outdoor irrigation, so we need people to understand that’s approximately 70 percent of their water use in this district and how to reduce it,” Malloy said. “We’re looking at what our water supply contingency is, knowing that the biggest effort is going to be to communicate it and there’s potentially some major changes that need to take place.”
Still, she said, she was proud of reductions residents have made in the last year as rules were added against overwatering.
Across inland, cities were looking at what measures they’ve already taken and how they will adjust to the order.
Claremont has a water conservation ordinance outlining restrictions for water usage, said Bevin Handel, spokeswoman for Claremont. Claremont staffers are working with Golden State Water to educate residents and enforce the water restrictions, she said.
“We will communicate directly with customers as additional information becomes available,” said Toby Moore, Golden State Water Company’s Chief Hydrogeologist and Water Resources Manager, in a statement.
Since February 2014, Upland has called for voluntary 20 percent reduction from its users.
In March, Upland increased its conservation efforts when the City Council implemented the moderate stage of its water conservation plan. The plan restricts outdoor irrigation by residents and other water users based on even days of the month if their address ended with an even digit, said Rosemary Hoerning, public works director for Upland.
“We have to step up our efforts, in terms of better use of our water supply, in order to meet the governor’s reductions,” she said.
And in Pomona, in response to the governor’s order, Meg McWade, deputy director of Pomona’s Public Works Department and city staffers will ask the City Council at its April 20 meeting to approve a new level of conservation measure, beyond the permanent water restrictions in place since 2009, following the last water shortage.
Staff writers Ryan Hagen, Liset Marquez and Neil Nisperos contributed to this report.
