As a native of the Coachella Valley near Palm Springs where it hardly ever rains, Joaquin Esquivel has always known that water is precious.
His uncle often took him to the Salton Sea, and he had family served by a well.
He carries that respect for the resource as chair of California’s State Water Resources Control Board. “Growing up in the desert, you are very aware of water,” he said.
After California’s record dry start to the year, efforts to conserve water have created a patchwork of rules for residents that sometimes vary by city or even by neighborhood.
Emergency regulations took effect statewide, prohibiting water waste and requiring water providers to address a 20% water shortage.
Meanwhile, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California imposed stricter rules for several communities in Ventura, Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties.
The Marin Water Board of Directors rescinded the county’s water shortage emergency declaration and updated its water use rules this week, adopting new requirements for outdoor irrigation and swimming pools.
A water emergency in Marin County was declared in the fall of 2021 after reserves reached critically low levels. According to the water board, the county’s reservoirs are way up and are currently at 90 percent capacity due to record rainfall that arrived in October and December of last year.
As California descends deeper into drought, officials are growing increasingly troubled by dwindling water supplies and the public’s lackluster response to calls for conservation, with residents in recent months falling short of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s request for a voluntary 15% reduction in usage.
Now, as the West tips toward crisis, state water regulators are considering adopting emergency regulations that will prohibit certain actions in an attempt to curtail water waste and help conserve supplies.
If approved, the proposal could usher in a wave of water regulations that hearken back to previous droughts while underscoring the seriousness of the current one.
The Water News Network is San Diego County’s source for water news and information.
