June water savings for cities revealed

June was when conserving water got serious. It’s the month when the state mandate of an overall 25 percent reduction in urban water use took effect to help California cope with a devastating drought, which is now in its fourth year.

The mandate is based on comparing monthly water use with the same month in 2013 and is for potable – or drinkable – water. The state is trying to achieve the overall 25 percent reduction by imposing differing reductions on cities and towns based on their residential water use as calculated on a per-person basis. The more water used, the bigger the reduction.

The reductions range from 4 percent to 36 percent, with many cooler, coastal communities required to save less than hotter, inland communities, such as cities in the Northern San Joaquin Valley.

The cities in the graphic reported their June conservation numbers to The Bee a couple of weeks ahead of when the State Water Resources Control Board will release them and for hundreds of other cities and towns throughout California.

Modesto came close to meeting its 36 percent mandated reduction while Oakdale exceeded its mandated reduction of 32 percent. The other cities did not fare as well, but these numbers reflect only one month and many factors can affect the results.

Ceres City Manager Toby Wells expressed frustration with the state mandate. In an email, he said the state’s rules failed to take into account the serious work his city of nearly 47,000 residents has done to save water well before the drought. He said those efforts are reflected in Ceres’ per-person daily water use being among the lowest in the region.

“As a city, we are using less water today than we used in 1996 with 15,000 more people,” Wells wrote. “Our residents and City have more than done our part to conserve water, as we started long before the State mandate.”

This story was originally published July 17, 2015 at 3:56 PM with the headline "June water savings for cities revealed."