Purissima Hills Water District directors Wednesday (Nov. 10) declared a water shortage emergency and announced a series of mandatory restrictions meant to help Los Altos Hills and its immediate neighbors reach a water reduction target equal to 20% of water use levels from 2019.
According to a resolution the directors approved at their monthly meeting, the restrictions are required because “the ordinary demands and requirements of the water consumers in the District’s service area cannot be met and satisfied by the water supplies now available to the District without depleting the water supply or diminishing its quality to the extent that there would be insufficient water for human consumption, sanitation, and fire protection.”
Excluding drip irrigation systems, district customers may no longer use potable (drinking) water for outdoor irrigation other than 20 minutes at a time, two days a week and only after 8 p.m. and before 10 a.m. They are prohibited from filling or topping off decorative fountains, lakes or ponds unless the water is recycled. Residential customers are also required to cover outdoor pools when they are not in use, and institutional customers must ensure recreation and athletic fields – including horse arenas – are not oversaturated. All must “make their best efforts” to reduce their potable water consumption by 20% each month compared to each month of 2019.
The resolution is a temporary measure, and the PHWD can lift the restrictions later if it deems such action is appropriate, a water district attorney said.
The PHWD consists of 2,191 service connections divided among its institutional customers, including the town of Los Altos Hills, Foothill College and Fremont Hills Country Club, and its residential customers, consisting of two-thirds of the homes in Los Altos Hills and some homes in surrounding unincorporated Santa Clara County. In 2019, district customers used 773,222 cubic feet (ccf), or approximately 578.4 million gallons, of water.
“We’re on pace to use 875,000 ccf in 2021,” district board president Brian Holtz wrote in an email sent to the Town Crier Thursday.
The directors did not specify penalties for violations of the resolution, but an existing wasteful water use ordinance describes potential fines and even jail time enforced by the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office for similar offenses after written notifications and multiple opportunities for corrective measures.
Despite the recent start of the rainy season, the National Integrated Drought Information System indicates all of California experienced drought conditions as recently as Tuesday. Conditions in 92.4% of the state were considered “severe drought,” meaning grazing land is inadequate, the fire season is extended and trees are stressed and susceptible to disease.
In October, California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a state of emergency applicable to the entire state. Newsom’s office, the Santa Clara Valley Water District and the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission have all called for 15% reductions in water use.
Additional local restrictions likely
Also Wednesday, PHWD directors began discussing potential future amendments to the district’s wasteful water use ordinance. The changes are based partly on Newsom’s recent water conservation proclamations and rules adopted by other water districts.
Director Lucille Glassman said the “big ticket” proposal is banning the use of potable water for any type of irrigation. Enforcement, the remote cut off of a water connection’s supply for overuse, would be possible if separate meters measured irrigation and nonirrigation applications. Emergency water would not be affected. The district could start installing two meters at newly constructed buildings and then eventually target existing customers.
“This is an opening move in a five-year strategic game plan, basically,” Glassman said.
Overall, PHWD customers use more water per person per day than those served by any of the other 25 water agencies within the Bay Area Water Supply and Conservation Agency’s (BAWSCA) service area of Santa Clara, San Mateo and Alameda counties, according to a BAWSCA annual survey from March.
During BAWSCA’s 2019-2020 fiscal year, PHWD customers, on average, used 248.9 gallons of water per person per day, the survey indicates. Town of Hillsborough customers were the second-largest consumers and used an average of 212 gallons of water per person per day. Twelve BAWSCA agencies marked an average of less than 60 gallons per person per day.
Notably, Holtz and his colleagues chose to remove a section from a draft of Wednesday’s emergency resolution that would have limited per capita per day water use to 150 gallons.
“I wouldn’t be able to approve this unless we had data on how many accounts this affects, how far people are over,” Holtz said during the meeting. “What’s the delta? What’s the haircut? I can’t model that in my head.”
According to a “District Overview and Capital Improvement Program” presentation shared at the meeting, 10% of district customers use 35% of the district’s water.
“We do have some high customers, some high-usage customers, that our staff has been contacting one-on-one,” said district engineer Joubin Pakpour as he delivered the presentation.
Documents related to the Nov. 10 Purissima Hills Water District meeting are featured on the district’s website but were still in draft form as of Friday morning.
