Most SLO County residents meet water conservation targets in December

Not all cities and communities in San Luis Obispo County met their water conservation targets for December, according to new data released Tuesday by state water regulators.

Unlike the month of November, when all local water suppliers met targets, in December the city of Paso Robles and the Atascadero Mutual Water Co. narrowly missed state-mandated goals, according to reports provided by the State Water Resource Control Board.

Statewide, water conservation in December fell to 18.3 percent compared with December 2013 usage — below the state’s 25 percent conservation target for the third straight month. On the Central Coast, the water conservation rate in December was 24.7 percent, according to a fact sheet from the water board.

The average statewide water use declined from 76 gallons per person per day in November to 67 gallons in December, the second lowest per-person rate since water-use reporting began in June 2014.

Since June 2015, all cities and water suppliers in San Luis Obispo cumulatively beat their conservation goals when compared with water use for the same period in 2013. The cities and water suppliers surveyed are the Atascadero Mutual Water Co., Arroyo Grande, Cambria Community Services District, Morro Bay, Nipomo Community Services District, Paso Robles, Pismo Beach and San Luis Obispo.

Data for Grover Beach, which is also tracked by the state, was not reported to state water regulators for December.

Statewide, Californians cut their water use by a combined 25.5 percent over the past seven months. This equates to about 354.2 billion gallons of water saved — enough to provide 5.4 million Californians with water for a year, state water regulators said.

While the state has received some desperately needed rainfall, water board officials continue to urge residents to conserve as much as they can through the winter.

“While the recent rains and growing snowpack are wonderful to behold, we won’t know until spring what effect it will have on the bottom line for California’s unprecedented drought,” Felicia Marcus, chair of the State Water Resources Control Board, said in a news release. “Until we can tally that ledger, we have to keep conserving water every way we can.”

In April 2015, Gov. Jerry Brown mandated a 25 percent water use reduction for cities and towns across California. The state’s water conservation regulation requires the state’s larger urban water suppliers to save a targeted amount of water between June 2015 and February 2016, when the mandates expire.

State water board staff will reassess compliance based on the supplier’s cumulative savings since June 2015, compared with the same time period in 2013.

The state water board was scheduled to meet Tuesday to consider whether to extend the restrictions through October 2016. In draft revised water conservation targets, the only community in San Luis Obispo County to possibly see its standard reduced is Paso Robles, which could drop to 24 percent from 28 percent.

This story was originally published February 2, 2016 at 4:49 PM with the headline "Most SLO County residents meet water conservation targets in December."