Amid drought, water-use penalties hit Bay Area

Sprinklers water a Pleasanton resident's yard in the middle of the day despite the drought. Sprinklers water a Pleasanton resident's yard in the middle of the day despite the drought. Photo: Michael Short, The Chronicle Photo: Michael Short, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 29 Caption Close Amid drought, water-use penalties hit Bay Area 1 / 29 Back to Gallery

Here comes the chapter of California's drought story where things get testy.

Asking people to conserve water? No problem. Ordering them to cut back or else pay up? Those are fighting words.

A debate has ignited in Pleasanton after leaders of the tidy East Bay city full of manicured yards and swimming pools declared a "local drought emergency" and laid out some of the strictest water restrictions in the Bay Area: a 25 percent mandatory cut over past use, with stiff fines for violators.

While the fee formula is complex, officials said those who fail to hit their target could see their bills double or triple upon a first offense - and go even higher after that.

The city said it could run short of water if current patterns of use continue. But the public response has underlined the passion that surrounds how water is allotted and paid for during a drought.

While many support the city's effort, so many complaints flooded the water department after the May 6 decision that six staffers - and a makeshift call center in a utility yard - were dedicated to handling concerns. Two additional employees are being trained to work the phones because the lines have been so busy.

Buzz about the cuts

"The 200 calls we got on the first day didn't surprise me," said Daniel Smith, who oversees the city water supply. "But the 200 calls on the fourth day did. ... And that doesn't count the e-mail."

In coffee shops and on the sidelines of soccer fields, everybody's talking about the cuts. Some are painstakingly changing their habits. Others are simply resolving to pay the extra money, rather than abandon a thirsty green lawn.

The hand-wringing comes as water shortages intensify across the Bay Area, forcing conservation efforts to shift from voluntary calls for action to mandatory limits. The new policies create inevitable winners and losers.

In Pleasanton, a suburb of 70,000, officials have taken an approach to rationing that has been used in past droughts, but that critics say favors water hogs.

Instead of hitting big users with caps or enacting a uniform ceiling for all users, Pleasanton's limits are based on what a customer consumed the previous year. All households, businesses and government offices in the city have been designated 75 percent of the water they used in 2013.

City officials say the policy was enacted because it best accommodates the individual needs of customers, big and small, while making sure everyone shares in the sacrifice.

The critics - who include those tying up the city's phone lines - say the program unfairly burdens households that have long practiced conservation.

"I've already maxed out on cutting my water use. I'm not sure what else I'll do," said Al Pascual, 68, a partly retired civil engineer who for years has watered his lawn and plants by hand.

"There are others around here with some pretty elaborate landscaping that has required a lot of water," he added.

The varying levels of water use are obvious across Pleasanton. Some parcels in the city's maze of subdivisions, populated by mostly upper-middle-class residents, have yards with little grass and lots of drought-tolerant plants. Some have water-hungry lawns, but their owners have started letting them go brown.

Other lots, though, have big yards with bright green grass.

Less water from state

A security guard outside Ruby Hill, a gated community where Pleasanton officials say per-capita consumption of city water is highest, shooed away a reporter asking questions about conservation.

Pleasanton's water restrictions, effective May 7, come as the State Water Project limits water deliveries.

The nearby cities of Livermore and Dublin are in the same situation. Like Pleasanton, most of their water comes from the state, and this year's allocation from their wholesaler, the Alameda County Zone 7 Water Agency, has shrunk by 25 percent because of the drought.

Pleasanton's neighbors, however, have taken a different approach to conserving supplies. The two communities recently raised their water rates - on a progressive scale that hurts big users most - in a bid to deter consumption. Past use is not a factor.

In addition, Dublin has imposed a cap that triggers penalties, but the relatively high limit of 640 gallons a day, on average, is expected to affect a fraction of residential customers.

All three cities, like many in the Bay Area, have restricted outdoor irrigation. In Pleasanton, residents can't water during the day, hose down hardscape or allow any runoff.

Smith, the Pleasanton water manager, said his district moved ahead with the 25 percent mandate because voluntary cuts urged earlier this year did not work as well as intended.

"The amount we have to reduce now is more than what other cities have to do," he said.

Smith emphasized that the penalties were not designed to make money. He said the city would be flexible with a policy that gives water officials the discretion to waive fines for low users.

"We want to be as fair as possible to the people who have done conservation," he said.

Sixty miles south in Santa Cruz, where the area's creeks and rivers have dried up, the water department has imposed limits equally as stringent. Unlike Pleasanton, however, the ceiling in Santa Cruz is the same for all homes: 1,000 cubic feet per month, the equivalent of 249 gallons a day.

"What this does is it provides enough water for people's basic indoor health and safety needs," said Toby Goddard, the city's water conservation manager, noting that the restrictions may require residents to forgo all outdoor watering but will be enough for everyday essentials.

The caps don't apply to businesses.

Goddard said the uniform cap on homes was selected because reductions based on a percentage would have "engendered a lot of ill will."

Lisa Lien-Mager, a spokeswoman for the Association of California Water Agencies, said a range of water policies is to be expected, because all communities are different.

"There's no one-size-fits-all or here's-the-playbook when you're in a drought," she said.

The drought situation isn't improving. This week, federal climatologists designated the entire state to be in "severe" drought, with some spots like the Bay Area experiencing "extreme" or "exceptional" conditions.

The Bay Area has seen only about half its average rainfall this rain season and the mountain snowpack that nourishes many local water supplies is sparse.

The region's largest water agencies - including the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission and the East Bay Municipal Utility District - have asked customers to cut back voluntarily. A handful of smaller water departments have started rationing.

Rethinking the lawn

Pleasanton resident Robert Brent, 59, knows that the situation in the dried-out foothills around his home is dire.

"If I had to do things over again, I wouldn't have had a lawn," he said.

Outdoor water use can account for close to half the total water used at a single-family home. This is where water agencies expect customers to achieve their biggest reductions.

Brent is OK with the city's decision to impose mandatory cuts. But he, too, is worried that his past efforts to conserve, such as putting in drought-tolerant plants and easing up on watering, will come back to haunt him as he tries to knock off another 25 percent.

"I've cut back, way back, but how will I even know if I've gone over the city limit?" he said.

Replaced grass with turf

Dave Olwin, 55, has gone as far as replacing his grass lawn with synthetic turf. He's also installed a system that coordinates his irrigation with the weather to make sure he isn't wasting a drop. Indoors, Olwin uses a bucket to collect the cold water that runs from his shower before it warms up, then uses it elsewhere.

He, too, will have to find ways to cut back another 25 percent, but he thinks the city's policy is the right one.

"You can't fault a person who has a big yard and needs more water. What are the alternatives? To let it die and leave the weeds and let look it look awful," Olwin said. "I don't want to go through my neighborhood and see people who aren't taking care of their lawn."