Residential water use in California dropped by a hefty 29 percent in May, according to figures released Wednesday by the State Water Resources Control Board.
The drop in usage was the biggest monthly decline yet reported since Gov. Jerry Brown ordered a mandatory 25 percent cut in urban water use on April 1 due to severe drought conditions.
“The numbers tell us that more Californians are stepping up to help make their communities more water secure, which is welcome news in the face of this dire drought,” said State Water Board Chairwoman Felicia Marcus, in a prepared statement.
“That said, we need all Californians to step up — and keep it up — as if we don’t know when it will rain and snow again, because we don’t. If the drought continues beyond this year, we’ll all be glad we did.”
Monthly residential water savings were 28.9 percent in May, compared with May 2013. That is a significant increase from the 13.6 percent water savings in April, compared to April 2013, the water board said.
The water board’s plan, approved in March, assigns conservation targets to each of the state’s water suppliers and requires cuts in consumption ranging from 8 percent to 36 percent compared with 2013 levels. The targets, based on residential per capita use in July, August and September of 2014, require cities and water districts with the lowest consumption during that period to cut the least. Heavy users must cut the most.
The State Water Board can issue cease-and-desist orders to water suppliers for failure to meet conservation targets. Water agencies that violate those orders are subject to fines of up to $10,000 a day.
Mark Gold of the University of California, Los Angeles’ Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, said that although a “mild May” may have helped with conservation, saving 29 percent shows that Californians have also made a “tremendous … behavioral response” to the drought.
“My first response is almost disbelief. It is such an incredible number,” he said. “These results are beyond encouraging; they’re heartening. They make you realize that as a whole, people in urban areas are making the sacrifices necessary to get through this unprecedented drought.”
Still, Gold said, “it’s only going to get harder” to conserve as the months grow warmer and demand for outdoor watering goes up.
“Now we’re going to see how willing the public is to sacrifice their outdoor gardens for conservation purposes,” he said. “I’d be surprised if the decline will be as successful for June as it was in May. This is one month. Now we need to roll six months together to make a significant difference.”
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