Californians managed to reduce their daily water use by only 6.7 percent in October compared to the same period last year

By Associated Press
Dec. 3, 2014

Californians are losing ground on compliance with a state goal to cut water use by 20 percent during the drought, according to statewide water-use figures released Tuesday.

Daily per-capita water-use figures for October from the state Water Resources Control Board show Californians used 6.7 percent less water compared to October of last year. That's short of the 20 percent reduction goal set by the state earlier this year, and worse than Californians' 11.6 percent year-on-year reduction in August and 10.3 percent reduction in September.

Water board staffer Eric Oppenheimer told board members that the latest figures stem from high water use in some Southern California communities. Southern coastal communities as a whole managed just 1.4 percent water reduction in October, compared to the same period last year. Rainfall in those areas is always short and residents love their green lawns, golf courses and swimming pools.

Northern coastal communities cut water use 22 percent for the same period.

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Water board officials say some of the key problem areas are affluent communities in Southern California, where rainfall is always short but residents love their green lawns, golf courses and swimming pools. Californians in the south coast region managed to cut water consumption by only 1.4 percent in October, the weakest showing in the state.

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Q: How hard is the drought hitting California?
A: Poorer, rural communities in the agricultural Central Valley are feeling some of the sharpest impacts. Hundreds of wells have gone dry as water tables recede, leaving families to rely on trucked-in water or even water collected for them by Girl Scouts. Some farmers say they've had to spend thousands of dollars more to dig deeper well or buy water, and some have seen almond and pistachio trees or other orchards shrivel. The drought has been hard on wildlife as well. State and federal officials last month, for example, said low water in creeks meant one kind of coho salmon in Northern California was apparently unable to breed at all this year. The officials had to move all year-old cohos in that creek to a hatchery to try to save the species.

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