SLO County residents continue to cut water use in July

Residents in San Luis Obispo County and across California continued to conserve water at impressive rates, according to state officials.

The State Water Resources Control Board announced Thursday that Californians reduced water use by 31.3 percent in July compared with July 2013, exceeding Gov. Jerry Brown’s 25 percent mandate for a second consecutive month since the emergency conservation regulation took effect.

Residents in some areas of San Luis Obispo County did even better than the statewide average. The biggest water savings in the county was in the city of Arroyo Grande, where residents conserved 41.3 percent in July compared with July 2013.

Statewide, July’s water savings moved California 228,940 acre-feet (74.6 billion gallons) closer to a goal of saving 1.2 million acre‑feet by February 2016, according to the state water board.

The emergency water conservation regulation requires urban water suppliers to provide monthly water use reports to the state agency. Urban water suppliers are expected to meet or exceed their individual conservation standard starting in June and continuing through February 2016. The year 2013 serves as the baseline for determining water savings statewide.

With 402 water supplier reports submitted for July, 290 suppliers met or were within 1 percent of their conservation standard, 59 suppliers were between 1 percent and 5 percent of meeting their conservation standard, and 49 suppliers were between 5 percent and 15 percent of meeting their conservation standard, according to the release.

Only four suppliers in July reported they were more than 15 percent away from meeting their conservation standard.

In San Luis Obispo County, six water suppliers were surveyed. Water agencies with fewer than 3,000 connections, such as suppliers in Los Osos and other unincorporated communities, were not surveyed but must reduce water use by 25 percent.

Pismo Beach and the Cambria Community Services District did not turn in their July numbers to the state water board before the deadline and were not included in the state survey, an agency spokesman said. The Tribune obtained their conservation numbers from the city and the CSD.

Here's a look at how much SLO County conserved in July 2015 compared with July 2013:

• Arroyo Grande: 41.3 percent

This story was originally published August 27, 2015 at 2:28 PM with the headline "SLO County residents continue to cut water use in July."