California moves to end unprecedented water restrictions

A greener yard and a more leisurely shower just might be in your future.

State officials, in a policy shift that reflects California’s easing drought conditions, decided Wednesday to scrap the emergency conservation mandates that have forced cities and towns to cut water use as much as 36 percent, often by hitting residents with unprecedented restrictions and fines.

Instead, the State Water Resources Control Board will allow urban water providers to set their own water-reduction targets based on their own customers’ wants and needs.

State officials, who appoved the change late Wednesday afternoon, said they neither want nor expect communities to abandon their recent conservation successes. They’re just trying to eliminate needless rules in areas that have more than enough water thanks to El Niño-driven rains this past winter.

“I’m looking forward to a good-faith effort by the water agencies,” said state water board member Steven Moore, acknowledging that residents may get too much leeway at the spigot if local suppliers don’t act responsibly. “Those who haven’t converted their yards (to drought-resistant landscaping) may be excited about having their green yards back. That could add up.”

Already, several water agencies are undoing the strict rules they slapped on customers this past year.

The East Bay Municipal Utility District, the Bay Area’s largest water retailer, decided last month to stop penalizing households that use more than 1,000 gallons per day, essentially making reductions voluntary and halting what amounted to some of the state’s stiffest fines for guzzlers.

The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, which serves the city and 26 other communities, is considering dropping its mandatory 25 percent water cut for irrigation accounts like golf courses and office parks.

California will consider lifting a mandatory statewide water conservation order for cities and towns after a rainy, snowy winter eased the state’s drought. California will consider lifting a mandatory statewide water conservation order for cities and towns after a rainy, snowy winter eased the state’s drought. Image 1 of / 83 Caption Close California moves to end unprecedented water restrictions 1 / 83 Back to Gallery

And several other Bay Area suppliers are similarly looking to ease statutes put in place after the state’s emergency water limits took hold in June.

Enough for 3 dry years

The looser local rules are welcome under the new regulations, as long as water providers meet the state’s requirement that they have enough water in reserve to accommodate three dry years. The policy calls on agencies to adopt a water-savings target that assures they’ll have the three-year supply.

While suppliers have until next month to determine what level of savings they should pursue, some figure they won’t need any cutbacks going forward. San Francisco and the suburban communities that share a water source with the city have more than than three years’ worth in their Sierra reservoirs, according to the Public Utilities Commission.

“We routinely conduct long-term supply analysis using aggressive, worst-case drought scenarios,” said Charles Sheehan, a spokesman for the commission. “The state’s three-year formula is not as conservative as our own internal models and projections, which use an 8.5-year design drought.”

The commission, under the current state mandates, has been required to reduce San Francisco residential use 8 percent every month when compared with the same period in 2013. Most Peninsula communities in the system have faced double-digit cuts.

Sheehan said the new regulation wouldn’t stop the water agency from trying to avoid waste and continuing to ask customers for voluntary conservation.

Keep conserving

East Bay Municipal Utility District officials are also looking to carry on more frugal water use, citing several efficiency programs planned in coming years.

For example, in the affluent Blackhawk subdivision near Danville — where the district has issued many fines for excessive water use — a leak detection system is being installed. The technology seeks to prevent waste in a high-use area and may be replicated in other East Bay communities.

“We are moving from emergency drought response back to a more long-term view,” said utility district spokeswoman Andrea Pook.

State officials said they believe conservation efforts will continue even with the change in policy because residents have grown accustomed to cutting back.

“The public now gets it in a way that they didn’t,” said Felicia Marcus, chair of the water board.

Marcus called the new policy a necessary compromise meant to appease water agencies tired of unnecessary controls while still requiring savings where they’re needed.

“We don’t want to cry wolf, but we can’t put our heads in the sand either,” she said.

The new regulations, which would take effect next month, also extend a number of statewide conservation measures that were enacted alongside the community reduction targets. Residents are prohibited from watering their lawns to the point of causing runoff, washing cars without a shut-off nozzle, using potable water in a fountain and spraying down driveways and sidewalks.

The policy also continues the requirement that restaurants serve water only to customers who request it, and that hotels give guests the option of foregoing laundry service.

Additionally, water agencies will still have to report their water use on a monthly basis to assure accountability and transparency.

New rules through January

The new regulation would run through January, at which time Gov. Jerry Brown has ordered the water board to develop permanent water rules.

While most water agencies support the change to “self-certified” water-savings targets, some say it’s too early to ease the current policy since the drought is far from over.

“Yes, our surface water supplies are better than they were a year ago, but that’s only one piece of the puzzle,” said Tracy Quinn, policy analyst for the National Resources Defense Council. “I’m not convinced that the voluntary, mandatory structure of self-certification is the way to go.”

Many water agencies have lost water sales and revenue because of the emergency mandates, a financial hang-up that Quinn said could prompt suppliers to sell more water than their supplies warrant.

State officials have said that, under the proposed rules, they will strictly audit local water supplies and make sure the self-set conservation targets are appropriate.

“This reporting will show us what agencies plan to do, and how they do, throughout the year,” Marcus explained. “Trust, but verify.”

The old policy, ordered by the governor at the height of the drought, assigned California’s roughly 410 largest water suppliers a specific level of savings based on their historic water use. Agencies that haven’t met their targets have been subject to fines.

The policy helped the state log a 24 percent drop in water use since June, compared with the same months in 2013 — before the governor declared a drought emergency.

The rationing program did not extend to agricultural water users, which consume the bulk of California’s water. Most farmers are served by the state and federal water projects, which have also curtailed supplies during the past four years.

Kurtis Alexander is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kalexander@sfchronicle.com Twitter: kurtisalexander