Water reduction measures falling short of 20 percent
Healdsburg city officials will start looking for additional ways to get the message across to local residents to conserve more water.
In a report to the city this week, Healdsburg’s public works engineering operations manager Brent Salmi told the city council they are lagging in meeting the 20 percent reduction measures.
In January, Healdsburg made news by becoming the first city in the county to approve mandatory water conservation measures.
But as of this week, only a 14.8 percent average reduction has been reached between April and the end of August.
“With 70 percent of the water being used for residential, likely the best method for us to get to 20 percent or better is to lessen the use of irrigation,” Salmi said. “That will involve some sacrifice on the part of the residents.”
Salmi said he notices that many residents still have green front lawns, and told the council it may be time to “step up our game as far as keeping awareness at a higher level.”
Lawn irrigation is one of the most water heavy residential uses. A new program was just launched this month for north county residents, encouraging the removal of lawns. According to Fourth District Supervisor Mike McGuire, a new partnership aims to remove 500,000 square feet of lawn in the north county and replace it with drought tolerant landscaping. A limited number of rebates are available through the program for the removal of turf grass.
Salmi said the nice, green lawns in Healdsburg represent “pretty egregious” water use.
When council members authorized the mandatory measures earlier this year, they said it was important to educate the community, not become water police, to encourage conservation measures.
In the meantime, City Manager Marjie Pettus said public works officials do respond to complaints from residents who see neighbors wasting water.
“The direction from the council when we went to Stage 2 (mandatory conservation), was that staff take an educational approach when dealing with citizens,” Pettus said. “The preference was not active enforcement.”
Pettus said if there are residents who are being less serious about water conservation, the city can look at moving beyond education and in to code enforcement.
Councilmember Gary Plass said increased education efforts will help get the message out again to residents.
“Education is the key to everything,” he said.
Mayor Jim Wood said his own front lawn has turned brown due to his family’s conservation efforts.
“At my house, we conserved 32 percent last month from this time last year. My lawn is pretty much dead.”
He added, “We aren’t asking everyone to kill their lawns,” but the city needs to see an increased level of water conservation from its residents.
Brigette Mansell, a candidate for Healdsburg CIty Council said she would advocate for the city to require residents to get rid of lawns.
“If you are in a crisis, you should not wait another meeting. I am really concerned about lawns. It’s a no-brainer to take care of lawns.”
The city council requested staff to return at an upcoming meeting with plans for how to increase residential water conservation.
For more information on the Russian River Drought Relief Program, which includes the turf replacement rebate program, as well as a high-efficiency fixture direct-install program, go to www.sonomacountywater.org/drought.
