Gilroy Furthest Away In County From Water Reduction Target: Data

By Jana Kadah, Bay City News Foundation

SANTA CLARA COUNTY, CA — It's been two months since Santa Clara County's water district declared a water shortage emergency, and so far, preliminary data reveals that residents are heeding the warnings, Santa Clara Valley Water District experts said.

Valley Water declared a drought emergency on June 9 and has only made data from January 2021 until the end June available. But the three weeks of data since the drought declaration show a downward trend, Senior Water Resource Specialist Neeta Bijoor said.

The June 9 announcement mandated that local water retailers cut water use by 15 percent compared to 2019 water usage.

In May 2021 Valley Water customers used 9 percent more water than they did in 2019.

However, by the end of June of this year, residents used the same amount of water they did in June 2019.

"We know it takes time to reduce water use," Bijoor said. "However, we are pleased to report that much progress has already been made and we are seeing total water use trend down."

Bijoor predicted by next month, Valley Water will have a better understanding of whether the mandatory 15 percent reduction will be met because the county and 10 out of the 15 cities passed similar water shortage emergency decelerations mandating similar cuts.

To meet the 15 percent reduction, the 10 cities and the county regulate irrigation, limiting it to two days a week during specific hours.

And unlike the water district, cities and counties can have enforcement power to ensure residents comply with irrigation schedules and water reductions.

"Here it's not uncommon to be watering your lawn five, six, seven times a week," Valley Water Spokesperson Matt Keller said. "And so, if you cut that, even if you cut it in half, that's the greatest place you can save."

He said even if residents cut irrigation by 50 percent, without cutting showers or using other water saving devices, the county could easily reach its goal to cut total water usage by 15 percent.

That is because outdoor water use in Santa Clara County is about half of the county's total water, Keller said.

The only cities that have not declared a water shortage emergency and mandated subsequent water use cuts are San Jose, Palo Alto, Mountain View, Monte Serrano and Los Altos Hills.

However, Keller said apart from Palo Alto and Mountain View, those cities are preparing similar water shortage decelerations that will be implemented soon.

"Palo Alto and Mountain View are two of the ones that have not because they don't get their water from us and (San Francisco Water) is not asking for conservation like Valley Water," Keller said.

Other data that indicates residents are listening to calls to conserve include high interest in Valley Water's myriad of water conservation programs and incentives.

The landscape rebate program received 600 applications in July which tripled since June and is 12 times more since January, Bijoor said.

The online shopping cart that provides free water saving devices had 800 orders in July.

Even water waste complaints from residents increased in July to 200 reports, which is eight times higher than it was in July 2020.

However, water district board members and staff warned that if water usage does not continue to decrease, the agency will have to take more drastic measures to make sure it meets its goal of 15 percent cuts.

"We've got to keep our eyes completely on what it's going to look like next year," said Aaron Baker, Chief Operating Officer for Water Utility. "The amount of water that it's going to take for us to get out of the drought, the amount of water that they're going to need to refill Shasta the amount that's going to be needed for Oroville...is a lot."

Baker continued that if goals aren't met, and rain fall in winter is not as high as they hope, "we must take additional actions."

At the Tuesday board meeting, Baker supported the board's call to direct staff to look at ways Valley Water can start enforcing the mandated 15 percent cuts.

That could look like fines or additional penalties to retailers like San Jose Water Company or City of Santa Clara, who dole out water to their customers, if they do not meet the goal.

However, so far, both San Jose Water Co and the City of Santa Clara, in addition to Sunnyvale and Stanford water retailers, have cut water usage down compared to 2019 water usage.

The water retailers furthest away from meeting the 15 percent reduction goal based on January to June 2021 data are Gilroy, which provides water to the city of Gilroy and Purissima Hills Water District, which serves two-thirds of Los Altos Hills and an unincorporated area to the south.

Keller conceded that it will take a couple of months to see the impacts of the landscape rebate programs or even the free water conservation devices but emphasized that the actions taken now will help prevent more serious environmental consequences.

Environmental consequences could mean empty reservoirs or subsidence which is when the ground sinks because of a lack of ground water. Worst case of subsidence could case underground infrastructure damage as well as damage to roads, buildings and bridges.

"We know it's going to take a little bit of time (for data to reflect trends in water use) but there's just not a whole lot of patience right now, I think, because this (drought) is so severe," Keller said. "Here we are two years into a drought and we're taking actions we didn't take in the middle of the most severe drought last time."

The next drought data update will be in a month and will include water usage from July.

It is unclear when staff will come back with the enforcement report, but Keller said it should be relatively soon since staff reports tend to come back in a few weeks.

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