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Amount of Mandatory Water Cuts in California Based on Address05-15-15 | News

Amount of Mandatory Water Cuts in California Based on Address

To help reduce water use in California by 25 percent, the state's ruling water agency allocated conservation savings for urban water suppliers across nine tiers of increasing levels, effective the first of June.

Responding to Gov. Brown's call for a 25 percent reduction in water usage, the California Water Resources Control Board adopted restrictions that include a tiered system of targets that all urban water suppliers that serve more than 3,000 connections must hit. A supplier's position in one of the nine different levels is based on how well the communities it serves have conserved water in the past.

The lowest tier, a conservation standard of 8 percent, includes San Francisco, part of San Diego and East Los Angeles. The 12 percent tier has the Central Coast town of San Luis Obispo and the Orange County city of Santa Ana in its ranks. Los Angeles, Santa Barbara and the rest of San Diego ended up in the 16 percent category. San Jose is at 20 percent.

The other tiers are set at 24 percent, 28 percent, which includes Sacramento, 32 percent and 36 percent, where Beverly Hills ended up.

Smaller water suppliers, which collectively serve less than 10 percent of Californians, must either reduce water use by 25 percent or restrict outdoor irrigation to no more than two days per week, and must submit a report on December 15, 2015 to demonstrate compliance.