This winter has deluged us with rains and snow, which have filled our reservoirs and flooded our fields (and, at times, our roads.) This is great news after years of drought, and it has led Governor Jerry Brown to declare the drought over, (though he wisely left in place some water conservation standards enacted during the drought.) While this is great news for California, it is critical that we don’t just forget the drought ever happened until the next time it stops raining. It’s easy to address our water issues during a drought, but it’s just as important, if not more so, that we do the hard work to reform our water system during the wet years.

In 2014, as a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, I authored an ordinance mandating water recycling be installed in new large developments. This was during the third year of our drought, and I learned two important lessons. First, is that it’s hard for anyone to oppose smart water policy during the middle of a drought (our legislation passed 11–0). Second, and more importantly, I learned that we should have been taking aggressive actions before the drought had started, not because of it.

Potential water recycling sources for buildings (credit: San Francisco Public Utilities Commission)

So as we move “passed” our most recent drought, it’s incredibly important that we not lose focus on working to improve our water policies in the years ahead so that the next time we get hit with a drought, we are in a better position to endure dry years, especially as we deal with more dramatic swings in our climate.

In that vein, here are three things we can do at the state level to better position us for the future:

1. Water Recycling — Expanding Water Reuse Throughout State

The law I mentioned above mandating on-site water reuse in new developments would never have happened without the efforts by the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission to develop standards and regulations around onsite water reuse for toilet flushing, irrigation, and other non-potable uses. The work to develop these standards, for water quality and monitoring, are critical to allowing for the expansion of onsite water reuse. However, local water agencies don’t always have the capacity or priorities to develop these standards, and the state needs to step in to develop basic standards.

That’s why I’ve introduced a bill to do so — Senate Bill 740. This bill requires that the State Water Resources Control Board Resources Control Board set comprehensive framework to assist local jurisdictions interested in developing water reuse programs , and that these standards be risk-based and focused on protecting public health. Once we have these standards in place, local agencies can work within this framework to develop onsite water reuse programs. Even during wet years, it’s illogical to be using fresh water to flush toilets when recycled and treated water work just as well.

2. Groundwater Recharge

Groundwater is stored naturally underground among the rocks, soil, and sand, typically thought of as flowing through aquifers. Water is often pumped out of groundwater to be used for municipal purposes, and pumping during multi-year droughts (where the groundwater is not recharged from a wet winter season) can leave our groundwater reserves depleted, which can cause settling and loss of groundwater storage capacity.

California needs to develop systems and incentives to better encourage the proper management and use of our groundwater systems. We should be finding ways to more actively steer water runoff into groundwater, instead of losing it to the oceans, where it mixes with saltwater and becomes unusable. These wet years are critical for recapturing what is lost during the drought, and replenishing our aquifers. An interesting program is in place in the Pajaro Valley to encourage using private lands to bank groundwater.

Rainwater collected in Watsonville as part of Pajaro Valley groundwater recharge efforts (photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle)

3. Capturing Rainwater for Drinking

When rainwater falls in our reservoirs, we all celebrate the replenishment of our drinking water. But rainwater falls everywhere, and while there are systems in place for capturing rainwater to use, we don’t have standards to allow us to drink it that adequately protects public health. While until 2013 it was previously illegal to even capture rainwater in California, rainwater now presents a significant opportunity.

Similar to SB 740, California can establish water quality standards for rainwater so that we can capture it and use it for potable uses, not just non-potable uses as we generally do. Having rainwater systems in place during wet years can also help fight the deluge on storm drains and flooding, and having it during the dry years can help capture the little rain we get for potable use. There is a lot of research that needs to be done to create these standards, but we should be getting to work now.

The severity of our drought is easy to forget as our snowpack increases and as we emerge from a wet winter in California. It’s easy to move on from taking action to change how we use and think about water. But the next drought is coming, as is the one after that, and the one after that. So let’s get to work now so we’re better prepared for next time.