Report: 23 Percent Water Reduction In July

New numbers show people in the Sacramento area continue to save water, even after the state lifted mandatory restrictions.

Water conservation reached 23 percent in July, compared with the same month in the benchmark year of 2013. That's according to the Regional Water Authority, or RWA, which represents water providers in the five-county Sacramento region.

"The numbers are really outstanding especially considering the hot month that we had," says Amy Talbot, the RWA's water efficiency manager. "We had 11 days over 100 degrees. So the savings mean even more because of the hot weather."

Talbot says summer is usually when water use doubles or triples.

"That's why these savings are really outstanding," says Talbot, "considering that we don't have any mandated water conservation standards from the state, we're entering really hot temperatures and we're still maintaining our conservation levels."

Talbot points out that July's "outstanding" numbers come two months after the State Water Board dropped mandatory conservation requirements.

"What we think is happening is that people learned that maybe they could do a little bit less watering outdoors, in the last couple of years, and are just continuing those modified behaviors," says Talbot.

Most water providers in the Sacramento area are continuing to ask customers to voluntarily reduce water use and are still enforcing water waste regulations.