The State Water Resources Control Board adopted a Regional Water Authority proposal to adjust emergency water conservation standards for climate. The adjustment will ease conservation targets for the Sacramento region and other hot inland communities by up to four percentage points.
The move comes after RWA and the region’s elected leaders came together to successfully urge State Water Board members and staff to consider the harsh impacts of current targets on the Sacramento region’s landscapes and trees. The urban tree canopy is showing signs of severe stress, according to urban forestry experts mobilized by RWA to testify before the board at its December meeting. The lobbying effort also included an opinion-editorial published in the Sacramento Bee and an appearance on Capital Public Radio’s Insight.
Learn more:
- Changes to the emergency conservation regulations
- Letter from Senators Ted Gaines, Jim Nielsen and Richard Pan and Assemblymembers Kevin McCarty, Ken Cooley and Jim Cooper
- We need fairer water conservation goals for inland California (opinion-editorial/Sacramento Bee)
- Sacramento leaders push state to alter water restrictions (interview with John Woodling/Capital Public Radio’s Insight)
