SACRAMENTO–Today the Regional Water Authority (RWA) Board of Directors unanimously adopted a resolution urging its 20 water provider members to take actions to voluntarily reduce water use by a minimum of 15 percent.
The action follows RWA’s call for 10 percent conservation in May and Gov. Gavin Newsom’s July 8 executive order that expanded the drought to 50 of the state’s 58 counties and asked residents to reduce water use by 15 percent.
“This is the worst drought since 1977,” said RWA Executive Director Jim Peifer. “Water providers are doing a good job of shifting to environmentally-friendly and sustainably-managed groundwater for water supplies, but continued dry weather into winter could pose a challenge.”
Folsom Lake levels are currently at 27 percent. Natural inflows into Folsom are zero and expected to remain that way through September. “For comparison, even in 2015 during California’s most recent drought, water was still naturally flowing into Folsom,” Peifer said.
Local water providers are asking customers to consider taking the following actions:
- Stress Your Lawn and Save Your Trees. Try reducing lawn watering times by two minutes, but remember to take steps to protect your trees. Lawn can handle less water and eventually recover while trees can be lost forever. You can find tips and videos for efficiently watering trees at BeWaterSmart.info/trees or sactree.com.
- Check soil moisture with a moisture meter before turning on sprinklers—saves 80 gallons of water per day.
- Water plants early in the morning to reduce evaporation—saves 50 gallons of water each time you water.
- Begin the transition to a beautiful low-water garden by removing half of your lawn this summer. You’ll be ready to add low-water native plants and drip irrigation this winter—saves 90 gallons of water per day per 1,000 square feet of lawn removed each time you water.
- Contact your water provider about rebates to replace older irrigation equipment, fixtures and appliances with high-efficiency models, including rebates on smart sprinkler timers, high-efficiency sprinklers, drip irrigation and more. Many have increased rebate amounts to help offset costs.
Information about how to implement these actions, additional water-saving tips and a continuously updated map with watering guidelines for each agency are available at BeWaterSmart.info.
The Regional Water Authority (RWA) is a joint powers authority representing 20 water providers serving 2 million people in the greater Sacramento region. Formed in 2001, its primary mission is to help its members protect and enhance the reliability, availability, affordability and quality of water resources. Learn more at rwah2o.org.
