April 25, 2014
Governor Issues New Executive Order on Drought Response
ACWA Continues to Support Heightened Water Conservation by Member Agencies
Gov. Jerry Brown issued an executive order today to strengthen the state’s ability to manage water and habitat effectively in drought conditions and called on all Californians to redouble their water conservation efforts.
The executive order includes a total of 20 separate actions and builds upon the governor’s declaration in January of a statewide drought emergency. The order directs the Department of Water Resources and the State Water Resources Control Board to expedite approvals of voluntary water transfers to assist farmers and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife to accelerate monitoring of drought impacts on salmon in the Sacramento River and its tributaries.
The directive also streamlines contracting rules for purchasing firefighting equipment and provides a limited waiver of several California Environmental Quality Act provisions for some actions limiting harm from the drought.
Of note to ACWA member agencies, the order calls on urban water suppliers to report to the State Water Board by June 15 on their actions to reduce water usage and the effectiveness of those efforts. Furthermore, Brown’s order encourages Californians to avoid wasteful watering by limiting commercial irrigation and lawn watering, among other measures.
Read the full text of Gov. Brown’s April 25 executive order here.
What ACWA Members Can Do
1. In line with the Governor’s request for more water conservation, on March 28 the ACWA Board of Directors approved a resolution calling on its 430 member agencies to take formal action urging customers to practice heightened conservation due to the ongoing drought. If you haven’t done so already, please consider asking your board to adopt a formal resolution recognizing the statewide drought and calling for heightened water conservation by your customers. (A sample resolution is here.) It’s also a good idea to send your agency’s resolution to the Governor’s Office at:
The Honorable Edmund G. Brown
Governor of California
State Capitol Building
Sacramento, CA 95814
2. Let ACWA know how your agency is responding to the drought, and update us when actions change. The association is continuing to update its comprehensive online map of local agency drought responses as more water suppliers take action. If your agency needs a dot on the map, please contact Marie Meade, ACWA Interim Communications Specialist, at mariem@acwa.com or (916) 441-4545.
3. Please continue to utilize and direct the public to water-wise resources on the Save Our Water website. Jointly managed by ACWA and the Department of Water Resources, the program has retooled its messaging to focus on the drought and has launched a new “Californians Don’t Waste” water conservation campaign and is running a new series of radio ads statewide
Tags: drought