Serious Water Savings

San Andreas, CA – Calaveras County Water District (CCWD) reports its customers reduced their water use by 40 percent in June, which is a bit of a double-edged sword for the water utility.

Last month’s customer conservation, coupled with May’s 37 percent water savings, could have a financial impact district officials admitted, if the dramatic drop in water use continues through the summer. This current reduction is two-and-a-half times the 16 percent reduction standard required by the State Water Resources Control Board for CCWD.  With a 20 percent water reduction figure built into its 2015-2016 budget, saving too much could be costly down the line. CCWD spokesperson Joel Metzger shares this perspective, “We don’t necessarily want to save so much water that we area doubling or tripling what the state is asking us. We still do want to preserve quality of life and keep those most important things alive.”

To that end, Metzger encourages customers to use both of their allowed watering days under the district’s current restrictions, especially to nurture newly planted drought tolerant landscape elements.