SWRCB Emergency Regulation Workshop Comment Letters
The State Water Resources Control Board will hold a public workshop on January 18, 2017, to receive input on the current Emergency Regulation for Statewide Urban Water Conservation. This will be an informational workshop only and the State Water Board will take no formal action
Background: The Emergency Regulation is scheduled to expire on February 28, 2017 if the Board does not act to extend it. A readopted Emergency Regulation would extend through October 2017.
The State Water Board is interested specifically in public comment on the following questions at this workshop:
1. What elements of the existing May 2016 Emergency Regulation, if any, should be modified? Should the State Water Board wait until the hydrology for the current water year is known (April or later) before proposing adjustments to the current method for calculating conservation standards? And, should the State Water Board allow suppliers to update or modify their conservation standard calculations (and if so, how)?
2. Should the State Water Board account for regional differences in snowpack, precipitation, and lingering drought impacts differently than under the current emergency regulation, and if so, how?
3. Executive Order B-37-16 requires the Board to develop a proposal to achieve a mandatory reduction in potable water use that builds off the mandatory 25 percent reduction in previous Executive Orders and lessons learned through 2016. The Board, however, is not required to act on this proposal. Should the Board act now, or later if conditions warrant, to a conservation standard structure like the one the Board adopted in February 2016 to achieve a mandatory reduction in water use? Should the Board set a conservation floor, individually or cumulatively?
RESPONSE LETTERS:
In response to the three questions, Mountain Counties Water Resources Association and several members submitted written comments encouraging the State Water Board to rescind the Emergency Regulation or let it lapse, and return local control to water districts:
CCWD SWRCB Workshop Comment Letter
City of Roseville SWRCB Workshop Comment Letter
PCWA SWRCB Workshop Comment Letter
NID SWRCB Workshop Comment Letter
STPUD SWRCB Workshop Comment Letter
