Our View: It’s no longer optional, we must conserve water

We must do more. That’s not a request, that’s an order.

Gov. Jerry Brown delivered that message Wednesday. A press conference including many of his top officials drove home the point that California has not done enough to save water. Now, conservation is no longer optional.

In this fourth and worst year of drought, we must either cut water use or many will go without. As State Water Resource Control Board chair Felicia Marcus put it, “this is a drought like we’ve not seen before, nor have our parents or grandparents.”

Gov. Brown’s emergency declaration calls for reductions of 25 percent of urban use and offers a host conservation measures.

Frankly, he should have required much more. Asking people growing roses to give up 25 percent while farmers are giving up 60 percent or even 100 percent of the water they depend on to survive reflects skewed priorities.

The governor loves symbolism. He declared his state of emergency on a bare spot in the Sierra that should have been covered in 6 feet of snow. Unfortunately, many of the measures outlined in his declaration have more to do with symbolism than substance.

For instance, he wants 50 million square feet of lawn ripped up. Sounds like a lot. But our region has the smallest lots in the entire valley, according to a Public Policy Institute of California study, and yet the governor’s plan would require fewer than 6,000 average lawns to go – not even a tenth of the lawns in Modesto. We we can do better.

Metropolitan Water District is spending $100 million in matching funds so that thousands of Southern California homeowners can stop growing (or mowing) grass. We’d like to see Modesto implement a similar program with help from Modesto Irrigation District; same thing in Turlock, Manteca and Oakdale.

The governor also wants rebates for low-flow dishwashers, water heaters and toilets. He wants fewer watering days, restrictions on hours and penalties on those who waste. Many communities are already doing those things, or will soon start.

Modesto, meanwhile, is invoking its “stage 2” drought measures, further restricting lawn watering and increasing fines up to $500 for repeat offenders. State officials promised that communities that don’t adopt the rules will feel the wrath of regulators. We hope so.

The most hopeful sign Wednesday was the sense of urgency that had been lacking in the past.

The governor’s proclamation did a few other things that are, frankly, more important than pulling up the lawns.

▪ He’s hiring more firefighters because the Sierra is a tinderbox.

▪ He’s trying to save what’s left of the “cold pools” behind our dams because cold water is necessary for fish survival.

▪ He wants the Department of Fish and Wildlife to develop contingencies for vastly reduced water deliveries.

▪ He’s asking for “necessary actions” to protect the Delta from saltwater incursion by building barriers.

▪ He’s demanding a report from the Department of Water Resources on fallowed fields and sinking land by April 30.

▪ Perhaps most importantly, he wants the well logs of drillers turned over to DWR immediately so the state can better map our groundwater supplies. This information could be used to help mitigate impacts on residential wells – which will undoubtedly start going dry as ag pumping accelerates.

It wasn’t in the governor’s declaration, but the state wants water to cost more. “Pricing,” said Marcus, is one of the “most important tools” to achieve conservation.

Marcus raised an ugly specter, saying “if it doesn’t rain next year … we’ll find ourselves in an Australian-style millennium drought.” If so, the sacrifices required will be far, far greater.

This story was originally published April 1, 2015 at 6:27 PM with the headline "Our View: It’s no longer optional, we must conserve water."