City Council Amends Water Restriction Regulation

REDLANDS >> The Redlands City Council voted to amend the water restriction July 5 to allow residents to water three times a week instead of two days a week. Irrigation of lawns, gardens, landscaped areas, trees, shrubs or other plants utilizing individual sprinklers or sprinkler systems is allowed on specific days and is prohibited between the hours of noon and 8 p.m. Residents in even-numbered addresses can irrigate on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays while residents in odd-numbered addresses can irrigate on Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Irrigation is permitted at any time if a handheld hose is used, or a handheld, faucet filled bucket containing five gallons or less is used or a drip irrigation system is used. Residents are also able to take advantage of the water conservation rebates approved by the city. The city council approved allocating $150,000 toward the rebate program with a $500 cap per water customer. The application to the rebate program can be found on the city website at cityofredlands.org/water/conservation. The change of the schedule became a part of the city's overall strategy to increase water conservation efforts to reduce water consumption by 20 percent for the next three fiscal years. The new water irrigation schedule will allow for restoring some of the greenery in the city in a responsible manner. On May 18, the State Water Resources Control Board adopted new water conservation restrictions, changing the required 36 percent water use reduction to zero. The change was made to meet the Redlands customer demands based on the production capacities of the City’s wells and treatment plants. In the 1960s, water within the Bunker Hill groundwater basin in San Bernardino was at an all-time recorded low, being 600,000 acre feet below average. According to the Water Board, if the current drought progresses, the 1965 historic low will have doubled if pumping and the drought continue through 2019. The Department of Water Resources has made available a 60 percent allocation, allowing for the recharge of about 60,000 acre feet in the basin. The Water Board said there have been meetings to discuss the health of the basin and what, if any, conservation standard should be implemented basin-wide. Based on the discussions, it was determined the basin’s safe yield would be used as the target for water use. The safe yield, or the average amount of water that naturally enters the basin through precipitation, will be used as the target for water use. Based on the average, the conservation goal is 15 percent in hopes of recharging as much water as possible in the basin.