In this aerial photo taken Tuesday, April 28, 2015, a spillway sits more than a 100 yards away from the water level of New Hogan Lake near Valley Springs, east of Lodi, Calif. The State Water Resources Control Board is considering sweeping mandatory emergency regulations to protect water supplies as water levels at some of California's lakes and reservoirs continue to decline.Rich Pedroncelli/The Associated Press
Californians conserved little water in March and local officials were not aggressive in cracking down on waste, state regulators reported Tuesday, saying residents and communities again fell short of Governor Jerry Brown's voluntary water savings target.
The State Water Resources Control Board received the update as it considers sweeping mandatory emergency drought regulations to protect water supplies in the parched state.
Mr. Brown has argued that the voluntary targets were insufficient and that Californians needed a jolt to take conservation seriously.
A survey of local water departments released at the start of the two-day meeting shows water use fell less than 4 per cent in March compared with the same month in 2013. Overall savings have been only about 9 per cent since last summer, even though Mr. Brown set a voluntary 20-per-cent target.
Lush lawns and verdant landscapes are first on the chopping block under the rules being considered, which would bar cities from using drinking-quality water on street median grass and encourage homeowners to let lawns go brown to meet local mandatory water-reduction targets.
Those conservation targets are among the most contentious provisions of the proposed rules. The board plans to order each city to cut water use by as much as 36 per cent compared to 2013, the year before the Governor declared a drought emergency.
The regulations before the board would also ban new California homes and buildings from watering lawns unless they meet new efficiency standards. With public comments, a vote on the rules might not come until Wednesday.
The board has already adopted other water restrictions: Californians cannot water lawns two days after rainfall, wash cars with hoses that don't shut off or hose down pavement. Hotels must offer guests a chance to reuse sheets and towels and restaurants can only serve water upon request.
Meanwhile, California's drought led to the deaths of 12.5 million trees in the state's forests last year, leaving behind huge amounts of dry fuel that could burn easily as the summer wildfire season begins, the U.S. Forest Service said Monday.
The dead trees, visible from the air as red patches in the forest, were weakened by drought and, in many cases, then killed by bark beetles, which have infested the state's forests and thrive in the warm, dry conditions.
"In some places, we had 100 per cent mortality," said Jeffrey Moore, a biological scientist with the Forest Service whose team mapped the dead trees by airplane last month.
The dry weather has made conifers in the state's wooded area particularly vulnerable to beetles, which attack when the trees are weak, eventually killing them.
With a report from Reuters