The State Water Resources Control Board is praising Californians for meeting the first mandatory conservation orders in state history for the second month in a row. The 31 percent drop in use in July is four percent higher than June. But Board Chair Felicia Marcus warned we can’t count on an El Nino to move California out of the drought.
"There's no guarantee that we'll receive the amount of precipitation we need to beat the drought in the right places and of the right form," says Marcus. "We need rain and snow in the Sierras especially the Northern Sierras to make a dent in this drought."
Only four urban water suppliers were more than 15 percent away from their conservation target. Last month there were nearly four times as many.
Cris Carrigan, chief of enforcement with the State Water Resources Control Board, says some are receiving conservation orders – but none will receive fines.
“It’s important to remember our goal with the conservation effort is not fines it’s to enhance conservation and to that end our enforcement approach has included a lot of compliance assistance,” says Carrigan.
The board has the option of fining those suppliers up to $500 a day,but the board has said it won’t.
July 2015 Statewide Conservation Data by Capital Public Radio
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