Water conservation would continue in California until at least May under a proposal regulators are considering. Currently, emergency drought regulations require cities and water agencies to prove they have enough water to meet future demands or they must cut back water use.
Those rules are set to expire at the end of February. But the State Water Resources Control Board has proposed extending them, despite the heavy rain and snow this winter.
“When we’ve got flooding up on the North Coast and you’ve got cows washing away it’s kind of hard to tell our people that we still have a statewide drought emergency and that they should continue to do what they’ve been doing," says Paul Helliker with the Humboldt Bay Municipal Water District. "It’s about time to call the game.”
Regulators argue that the state is only halfway through the wet winter and rain could end. They say some parts of the state still lack an adequate water supply.
The water board will vote on the proposal in February, and revisit the issue in May.
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