SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Californians cut their water use in April by 13.5 percent over the same month two years ago, a big improvement from March and the first indication of how the state is reacting to mandatory water cutbacks imposed by Gov. Jerry Brown to deal with the region's ongoing drought.
The report on water conservation, issued Tuesday by the California State Water Resources Control Board, was encouraging but not conclusive. For one thing, April was atypically rainy and cool, conditions that contribute to less water use. And 97 of the state's 411 water suppliers have yet to impose the restrictions on lawn watering that state officials say will be critical to dealing with the drought.
Max Gomberg, a scientist with the water resources control board, said that many local authorities had not had time to vote on those kinds of restrictions and that, as a result, July's report might prove to be more informative. The mandatory reductions contained in the executive order went into effect Monday.
The 13.5 percent reduction, while much more encouraging than the 3.9 percent cut in water use in March, is still far short of the 25 percent statewide mandatory cutback contained in Brown's order; the figures vary from community to community, depending on earlier conservation efforts. Still, state officials said they were encouraged with the latest report, particularly after what had been an unrelenting run of discouraging news about the drought.
"I'm sort of feeling like local communities are stepping up in a way they weren't before," said Felicia Marcus, the chairwoman of the water control board. "I'm hoping that is why we are starting to see this uptick." (She referred to the March number as "abysmal.")
Gomberg said he thought the latest results showed evidence of a real effort.
"I'm optimistic we will continue to see this improvement," he said.
The 25 percent reduction is aimed at nonagricultural use. State officials said they had received 200 applications from farmers in California's Sacramento and San Joaquin river delta to voluntarily reduce their use of water by 25 percent in exchange for not facing stiffer mandatory cuts later. Michael George, the delta water master, who is responsible for administering water rights in the region, said that the number of applicants appeared to represent more than half of the farmers eligible.
George said that many farmers were proposing to save water by letting fields go fallow. But he said that others were suggesting ideas that would result in permanent water savings, including planting crops that use less water and investing in different kinds of irrigation systems.
"The plans have a great deal more variety than frankly I had anticipated," he said.
The latest report on water saving came as California enters the most critical months in coping with the drought: summer, when water use is the heaviest, as homeowners and others begin watering lawns and gardens. Marcus said the summer was when California needed to conserve the most water.
"Otherwise," she said, "we are toast."