The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta supplies a significant part of California's water. Recent environmental issues in the Delta (habitat protection, endangered species, problems with levees) have caused state government officials to look at comprehensive solutions to fix the area. One element of fixing the problems in the Delta includes water conservation.
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has outlined the 20x2020 plan http://www.waterboards.ca.gov/water_issues/hot_topics/20x2020/index.shtml to reduce per capita water use in urban areas by 20% by 2020. Note that the target is a 20% reduction in per capita (per person) water use, not overall water use. The plan is designed to allow population growth while cutting the amount of water each person is supposed to use.
10 Regions
Under the plan, the state is divided into 10 hydrological regions. The 10 regions are: North Coast, San Francisco Bay, Central Coast, South Coast, Sacramento River, San Joaquin, Tulare Lake, North Lahontan, South Lahontan and Colorado River. Orange County is in Region 4, South Coast. The regions are delineated by water flow patterns and geographic features such as mountain ranges.
What the Plan is and is Not
- Only urban water use and conservation is addressed. Agricultural use is not addressed in this plan.
- Only drinkable (potable) water is addressed. Water recycling, such as Orange County's groundwater basin recharging plan, is not addressed.
- Water which is supplied by customers for their own use is not addressed.
- Only per capita use, not total regional or state use, is addressed.
What the Plan Does
20x2020 establishes baselines for water usage, determines conservation targets, evaluates potential savings from actions currently in place, and assesses potential savings from proposed conservation actions. The plan also outlines Best Management Practices (BMPs).
Best Management Practices
These are the practices which were in use prior to the plan:
- Water survey programs for residential customers
- Residential plumbing retrofit
- System water audits, leak detection and repair
- Metering with commodity rates for all new connections and retrofit of existing unmetered connections
- Large landscape conservation programs and incentives
- High efficiency clothes-washing machine financial incentive program
- Public information programs
- School education programs
- Conservation programs for commercial, industrial, institutional (CII) accounts
- Wholesale agency assistance programs
- Retail conservation pricing
- Conservation coordinator
- Water waste prohibition
- Residential ultra-low flush toilet (ULFT) replacement programs
Potential Changes to Water Usage
In several areas of the state, outdoor water usage is as much, and in some cases double, the indoor use of water. Outdoor water use is for landscaping, recreation and water features. Indoor water use is drinking, bathing, and washing. The statewide target for water usage is 154 gallons per capita per day (GPCD).
For Region 4, South Coast, the current baseline is 180 GPCD. The target is 149 GPCD. Using measures currently in place, only 24 GPCD can be saved. The additional 7 GPCD savings can only be achieved using more restrictive measures.
The more restrictive measures include:
- Limiting irrigation to two days a week or less.
- Encourage climate-appropriate landscaping to reduce water usage.
- Expand programs to use graywater and rainwater for landscape irrigation.
- Convert all unmetered connections to metered connections.
- Set state standards for high efficiency clothes washers.
- Set and support landscape irrigation equipment efficiency standards.
- Accelerate replacement of toilets, showerheads and urinals which do not meet current water usage standards.
- Find ways to make dishwashers, on-premises laundries (hospitals, universities, prisons), commercial ice operations, building cooling and hot water systems, and vehicle washing systems more efficient.
- Implement conservation pricing to encourage water conservation.
- Create mechanisms for funding water system upgrades.
- Use enforcement actions to prevent waste and unreasonable use of water.
- Increase use of recycled, graywater, rain water and storm water.
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