This week two significant actions were taken by the Administration and Legislative leaders in response to California’s on-going and devastating drought. On Tuesday, the State Water Resources Control Board (Water Board) adopted an expanded emergency regulation to safeguard the state’s remaining water supplies. And on Thursday, Governor Brown and legislative leadership announced $1.1 billion in emergency funding for flood protection and drought relief.

The drought emergency regulation approved by the Water Board on Tuesday expands and extends the emergency regulations adopted in July of last year. Regarding potable water use, a new rule was adopted banning all Californians from watering lawns and landscaping with potable water within 48 hours after measurable rainfall. This would be in addition to the existing prohibitions concerning the washing down of driveways and sidewalks, washing of automobiles and the operation of decorative water features. New prohibitions affecting commercial businesses were also approved by the Water Board. These will ban all restaurants, bars and hotels from serving water unless customers ask for it; and require all hotels and motels to provide signs in rooms telling guests that they have the option of choosing not to have towels and linens washed daily.

Under the new rules, urban water suppliers must now limit the number of days per week that customers can irrigate outdoors. The limit must either be specified in their drought contingency plans; or if their plan contains no specific limit, irrigation is limited to no more than two days per week. Questions have been raised by counties regarding the implications of this requirement on the unincorporated areas. According to Water Board staff, the implementation of the outdoor irrigation restrictions is tied to the water agency and their service area. While water supplier service areas can cover both incorporated and unincorporated area, there are many unincorporated areas that are not served by any water supplier (i.e. they rely on groundwater wells, etc.) and therefore would not be subject to the days-per-week limitations of a water shortage contingency plan developed for an urban water supplier’s service area. The Water Board staff further clarified that there is no requirement for a county to develop a plan and impose such restrictions on those areas not served by a water supplier.

As for next steps, the emergency regulation was submitted to the Office of Administrative Law (OAL), which has 10 days to approve or deny the regulation. If approved the regulation will take effect immediately and remain in effect for 270 days from that date. All of the details regarding the emergency regulation are available on the State’s Emergency Water Conservation website.

Regarding the State leaders’ drought relief package, the proposed legislation includes more than $1 billion for local drought relief and infrastructure projects to make the state’s water infrastructure more resilient to “extreme weather events”. According to the Governor’s office, the package accelerates $128 million in expenditures from the Governor’s budget to provide direct assistance to workers and communities impacted by drought and to implement the Water Action Plan. It also includes $272 million in Proposition 1 Water Bond funding for safe drinking water, groundwater sustainability and water recycling and accelerates $660 million from the Proposition 1E for flood protection. Lastly, the package creates a first-of–its-kind office to help disproportionately impacted communities respond to their water challenges and access state resources.

The legislative package will include a combination of appropriations bills and policy bills, all of which were not in print at the time of this article’s drafting. The Legislature is expected to hold votes next week on the drought package, whose passage will allow spending immediately. The governor’s press release on the drought relief package is available at http://www.gov.ca.gov/news.php?id=18893. CSAC will continue to keep counties apprised of any action on these measures.