SANTA ROSA (BCN)—The Santa Rosa City Council on Tuesday approved lifting its mandatory drought restrictions that were in effect since August 2014.
The action was in response to the State Water Resources Control Board’s adoption in May of a different statewide water conservation approach that replaces water use reduction targets with a local “stress test” approach.
The stress test requires urban water suppliers to ensure at least a three-year supply of water to their customers under drought conditions. It will be in effect through January 2017.
Santa Rosa and the Sonoma County Water Agency determined the region has adequate and reliable water for the next three years and no longer has a mandatory conservation target from the state, Santa Rosa Water officials said.
Since Santa Rosa’s mandatory drought restriction in 2014, the city has replaced nearly 1.2 million square feet of turf with low-water use landscapes equivalent to 25 football fields, Santa Rosa Water officials said.
Santa Rosa Water officials said 5,500 of its customers participated in a grant-funded ultra high-frequent toilet replacement program, and more than 1,500 customers received water-use efficiency audits of their homes and businesses.
“Santa Rosa Water is extremely thankful for our community’s commitment to making permanent water use efficiency improvements, successfully reducing water use by 25 percent since June 2015 and exceeding our 20 percent community-wide reduction target,” Santa Rosa Water’s deputy director of water resources and engineering Jennifer Burke said in a statement.