By Camas Frank

Reading like a war report, cataloguing troop movements and fortifications, the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services’ weekly report on the drought is harrowing in its desperation to do something, anything.
For the week ending June 2, CalOES released six pages of bullet points that demonstrate programs ranging from a $1.6 billion upgrade to the Sacramento Regional Wastewater Treatment Plant to changes to local education programs, free at the moment but offering potential water savings.
On Page 5 of its latest report, 57 emergency proclamations from counties, cities, independent tribes, and special service districts are listed to bolster solidarity in the fight against a crippling shortage of the life sustaining resource.
The City of SLO will be on the list this week, joining 11 other municipalities, including Santa Barbara to the south. Both SLO and Santa Barbara counties are already on the list.
The City’s Utilities Services Manager, Ron Munds, and Utility Department Deputy Director for Water, Aaron Floyd, acknowledged at the June 2 City Council meeting that the emergency declaration would be in large measure to show the State, and anyone else, that SLO is serious about dealing with the drought.
Not that it’s the only thing they’re doing. City staff is fond of bullet points too, and there were seven categories of action regarding a comprehensive, drought response strategy.
The Council gave unanimous support for the list meaning that residents will have to fall in line voluntarily or be cajoled into water reductions.
Easily the most noticeable will be a mandatory reduction of the City’s alternating 3-day watering schedule to 2-days a week with timing restrictions.
New developments will also be allowed to defer installation of landscaping that was previously approved or be encouraged to install drought tolerant plants instead.
Another interesting concept was approval of an incentive program, in principle at least, to encourage installation of water saving toilets and washing machines.
Two decades ago, Munds said, a similar program saw success combatting the last major drought, as wasteful fixtures installed in the 1970s and ‘80s were replaced with low flow, 1990s models.
Since all of the incentive money in such a plan comes from ratepayers, they’re trying to be picky about what qualifies for a subsidy.
The Council also discussed its desire to be a “good neighbor,” in the words of Councilman Dan Carpenter, with non-potable water from a well at the City’s Corporation Yard.
For years that supply has been used by people outside the City Limits and also outside businesses. Primarily for landscaping and livestock, residents have complained about construction companies and other industrial uses of the water outside the City.
The Council approved a permit program allowing use of the resource on property that lies within and outside the City. Residents would pay $50 and outside residents pay $350.
Those provisions would still allow continued use by residents — such as the citizens on O’Conner Way, who came to the meeting to share their experiences of using the water to save their few remaining fruit trees.
Council members were also concerned that the program be administered to curb any wasteful use or taking of the water by non-permit holders.
Taken together, all of the measures put forward as part of the “Drought Response Strategy” are looking to achieve a 12-percent reduction that the State mandated SLO must achieve under the terms of the Governor’s April 1 executive order.
While that’s a voluntary program for now, if reductions are not achieved more drastic measures such as rationing or a flat out building moratorium could be considered in the future.
The emergency declaration, said Utilities Director Carrie Mattingly, will allow the staff to act quicker, as conditions change. Under its last projection, the City has 3.5 years of water left with current use.
In July 2014 the City argued against water rationing, telling the State Water Resource Control Board in a letter, “The City of San Luis Obispo’s computer model used to predict water supply under worst case drought conditions show that there is a 7-year supply of water available at this point in time; per our Water Shortage Contingency Plan, mandatory restriction would be implemented when there is a projected 3-year supply available.”