Last summer, thousands of water users were ordered to stop diverting water from rivers after many growers had already made planting decisions.
Public water systems that could be affected by the curtailments include the cities of Lodi and Vallejo, and San Francisco’s Regional Water System, according to a water board document. Many cities have a variety of water sources, such as groundwater and stored supplies, and it is not immediately clear how much water they will lose.
The Sacramento River watershed, although hit hard by the drought, is expected to be relatively spared by the new cutbacks for now.
“In the Sacramento watershed, we actually don’t anticipate significant curtailments at this time,” Erik Ekdahl, deputy director with the State Water Resources Control Board, said at the water board meeting today.
The lack of substantial curtailments there, Ekdahl said, are “largely related to the reduction in water use by the Sacramento River and Feather River settlement contractors,” which have contracts entitling them to certain amounts of water even in dry years.
In the Sacramento Valley, for instance, major irrigation districts have already agreed to reduce their water deliveries to 18%, a massive cut from their typical dry-year reductions that leave 75% of their supply intact.
Smaller tributaries, however, including Cache and Putah creeks, are expected to see curtailments, Ekdahl said.
Deeper cutbacks could come as the summer continues.
The news of the curtailments comes as Californians once again fell short of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s entreaties to conserve water. New data released today shows households and businesses in cities and towns increased water use by 17.6% in April compared to two years ago.
Urban water use decreased in northern coastal and mountain regions by about 10% to 14% and flatlined in the Bay Area. But it increased everywhere else — from 2.2% in the Sacramento River area, to more than 40% in the deserts of southeast California. The increase once again cut into the state’s total water savings since last July, which now sit at 2% overall relative to 2020.
Southern California water users haven’t been unscathed by the drought. The giant Metropolitan Water District this month imposed strict water restrictions on 6 million of its 19 million customers, including in parts of Los Angeles, that rely on the parched State Water Project.