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Lawn watering restrictions mandated after years of devastating drought will soon be eased in Poway. Instead of being allowed to water only twice a week, for 10 minute intervals per sprinkler station, customers will be allowed to water three times a week starting almost immediately, the Poway City Council decided last week.

Assistant City Manager Tina White said within days papers will be signed allowing city water customers to water on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays between the hours of 8 p.m. and 8 a.m.

California may have lifted its emergency water-use restrictions in May, but that doesn’t mean the region’s dry spell has ended. It’s just no longer what Felicia Marcus of the state water board described to Time as “the-worst-snowpack-in-500-years drought.”

Now that the past year’s El Nino rainstorms have brought some life back into the west coast lands, California cities and residents are working to implement water conservation practices as a part of everyday life. A new program from the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) is one such case in point.

After a year of mandatory water conservation that shortened showers and faded lawns, millions of drought-weary Californians will no longer be required to aggressively cut back their use.

In order to comply with the state’s latest emergency regulation, local water providers this week submitted documents intended to demonstrate whether their agencies have enough supply to meet customers’ demands for another three severely dry years.

Los Angeles has enough water to make it through three more years of drought without continuing state-mandated water cuts.

That’s the finding of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power’s “stress test,” which was due to the State Water Resources Control Board this week. Under a complex calculation handed down by state water officials, local agencies have to project future water supplies given the assumption that California won’t receive any more rain and snow in the next three years than it did over the previous three.

San Diego officials are considering ratcheting back water use restrictions and are scheduled to present their plans Thursday to the City Council’s Environment Committee. If the change from a Level Two Drought Alert response to a Level One Drought Watch is approved, water conservation efforts would be voluntary, allowing residents to water their lawns more than two days a week. City officials will still encourage residents to water no more than three days a week, and continue other conservation efforts.