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A proposal to make California’s drought-era water restrictions permanent could allow the state to chip away at long-held water rights in an unprecedented power grab, representatives from water districts and other users told regulators Tuesday. Members of the state Water Resources Control Board delayed a decision about whether to bring back what had been temporary water bans from California’s drought, spanning 2013 to 2017. The plan is part of an effort to make water conservation a way of life, with climate change expected to lead to longer, more severe droughts.

Human water use in California could be the reason behind an increase in earthquakes in the state. A study published recently in Nature said the use and extraction of groundwater affects the mountains and valleys. The study comes as the state experiences its third driest winter on record. State officials are also considering permanent water restrictions.

It’s starting to look like a drought year for California farmers who depend on water from the federal government. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation announced Tuesday that most farmers south of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta who get water from the federal Central Valley Project will receive just 20 percent of their requested allocation this year. Although the numbers could change and the allocations could increase this spring, the initial figures reflect the abysmal precipitation California has received so far this winter. “We have extremely low snowpack and limited anticipated runoff,” said David Murillo, the bureau’s regional director.

That sign in hotel rooms asking guests if they really need their towels and sheets washed each day would become the rule in California, enforced with a $500 fine, if water officials vote to make a series of smaller-scale conservation measures permanent in the drought-prone state. Members of the state Water Resources Control Board are scheduled to decide Tuesday whether to bring back what had been temporary water bans from California’s 2013-2017 drought and make them permanent.

California’s top water officials are considering permanent conservation rules that would outlaw hosing down driveways, over-watering lawns and running sprinklers on grassy street medians. The proposed regulations would target wasteful water use in cities and towns statewide, permanently bringing back some of the temporary restrictions imposed during California’s record-setting 2012-16 drought. The State Water Resources Control Board is taking up the measures as California faces worsening drought conditions near the end of a record-warm winter.