Sacramento residents urged to reduce water usage by 10% as California drought deepens

Sacramento-area residents were urged Thursday to cut water usage by 10% as much of the state has been plunged into another severe drought.

Just three days after Gov. Gavin Newsom declared the area officially in a drought, the Sacramento Regional Water Authority asked for voluntary conservation measures as its member agencies scramble to cope with drought conditions that seemingly worsen by the day.

“We are calling on local water providers to reduce their reliance on Folsom Lake and the Lower American River for their water supplies as much as possible,” Jim Peifer, the authority’s executive director, said in a prepared statement.

Although no new mandatory conservation orders have been issued, Peifer indicated that the 10% voluntary cuts might not be enough.

“Residents may be asked to further their efforts,” he said.

The authority believes the region has enough water to withstand the drought. But the organization, whose 20 member agencies serve 2 million residents, is engineering a massive shift in its water portfolio to cope with the drought: The authority’s agencies will reduce their dependence on Folsom Lake and the Lower American River, and draw more heavily on the region’s massive groundwater basin. The basin is twice the size of Folsom Lake.

By preserving water in the reservoir and the river, the agencies are hoping to keep enough cold water in the system to fortify beleaguered populations of Chinook salmon and steelhead trout.

The idea is to preserve water in Folsom Lake and the Lower American River, where cool water is needed to prop up ailing fish populations. The regional authority oversees a complicated water-sharing agreement previously negotiated with environmental groups.

“We are asking our residents to lower their water use — this is necessary to balance the interests between the economy and the environment,” Peifer said in an interview. He called the river “the crown jewel of the region.”

Six years ago former Gov. Jerry Brown issued a statewide drought emergency declaration requiring urban Californians to cut water use an average of 25%. Newsom on Monday declared that most of California is in drought, including the Sacramento region, but stopped short of ordering any mandatory cutbacks. His administration said mandates could come if the state suffers through another dry winter, but area officials are hoping such orders don’t become necessary.

“We want to persuade,” Peifer said.

Officials say drought conditions have deteriorated severely in the past month, as snowmelt from the Sierra Nevada has been sopped up by ultra-dry soils, leaving very little runoff to reach the state’s reservoirs.

Folsom Lake is lower than it was during the depths of the last drought in 2015.

This story was originally published May 13, 2021 at 3:51 PM.