The Santa Clara Valley Water District has laid out a comprehensive plan for dealing with the worsening California drought.
A call to "act now and conserve water during drought emergency" was posted to the district’s website on July 1. However, preparation for the drought has been in the works since June when board members declared a water-shortage emergency in Santa Clara County.
This declaration allowed the implementation of regulations and restrictions on delivery and use of water across the county, kickstarting the district’s comprehensive plan.
The Valley Water District outlined a few easy steps for communities to change their water-using habits including:
"Taking shorter showers with a water-efficient showerhead.
Doing full loads of laundry or dishes.
Turning off the faucet when brushing your teeth or shaving.
Reducing outdoor watering of ornamental plants."
Creating the plan was an important step, but now it’s up to individual cities to decide how they will follow the recommendations.
For the City of Santa Clara, which recently joined the long list of California cities that have declared a local drought emergency, water conservation efforts include cutting back on flushing fire-hydrants, curtailing irrigation of golf-courses and limiting outdoor water to three-days a week.
Outdoor watering is a major threat, a Valley Water District conservation specialist explained, warning that "a single broken sprinkler can waste over 25,000 gallons of water in a six-month period."
In San Jose, the water district has restricted commercial car-washing to professional cites that use recycled water.
Valley Water District Director Barbara Keegan hopes to see wants to take this idea a step further, hoping to see residents awarded permission to wash their car with their own recycled water in the future.
More regulations like these have popped up around the Bay Area and are bound to become common as the summer wears on.
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