Feb 4, 2016

California extends water conservation mandates

The California State Water Resources Control Board announced the extension of water conservation mandates through the end of October.

Urban Californians will have to reduce their water usage by about 23.4 percent, the Sacramento Bee reports.

Here’s more from the Sacramento Bee:

The decision came in spite of increasing evidence that El Niño is delivering better-than-average precipitation, including an encouraging measurement of the Sierra Nevada snowpack recorded just hours earlier.

The current rules are based on historical per-capita consumption rates and tend to punish hot, dry areas like Sacramento. The new rules make allowances for climate differences and give credits to communities that have invested in “drought-resilient” new water supplies.

The regulation will allow the state to save more than 1 million acre-feet of water through October, the State Water Board said in a news release.