PUB00050

• Year: 1997
• Title: Layperson's Guide to Water Conservation
• CWCB Section: Water Conservation & Drought Planning
• Author: California Water Education Foundation
• Description: Layperson's Guide to Water Conservation
• Publications - Doc Type: Other

Introduction

Water conservation is not just an emergency re-
sponse to recurring droughts; it has become a way
of life in California and is a crifical part of the state's
overall strategy for managing water resources
efficiently. Practices once regarded as impractical
or unnecessary by agricultural, industrial and urban
users are more incorporated into everyday life
each day.

A variety of forces have shaped this new conserva-
tion ethic. Higher prices for water brought on by
droughts have encouraged more efficient water use
practices by urban and industrial users. Wide
fluctuations in water deliveries to agricultural
customers have forced farmers to find new ways to
manage their supplies. Population increase predic~
lions for urban areas means stretching every drop
of water. Federal, state and local laws require

California's most rece11f
drought s/wllIled nearly
set'en years, and water
eXjJerts aRree there \\'ill
he more s/lch cycles
il/ tlIef/allre.

installation of low-flow plumbing equipment and other
measures to reduce water demand. Environmental
concerns have encouraged conservation as a means
of making more water available to support fish and
wildlife and their habitats.

Like its economic fortunes, California's water re-
sources have for decades followed boom-and-bust
patterns. The worst drought of the 20th century
stretched from 1928 to 1934, and the cycle subse-
quently was used for all major water project design.
Although the 1976-1977 drought spanned just two
years, it caused severe water rationing. The most
recent "bust"" cycle was a drought that spanned
nearly seven years, finally ending in 1993, and water
experts agree there will be more such cycles in the
future. Tree-ring data suggest that the most recent

1

California droughts are not unusual events and may
in fact be mild in comparison with past dry periods.

The state's Drought Information Center, created
during the last drought cycle. is evidence of the fact
that conservation is no longer limited to the periodic
droughts that are part of California's experience.
When the 1987-1993 drought ended, the center was
not abolished but instead was renamed the Water
Conservation Center and given an ongoing mission
to promote water conservation.

Many of the conservation measures adopted during
the 1987-1993 drought, such as low-flow plumbing
fixtures and more efficient agricultural irrigation prac-
tices, remain in effect. Others, such as adopting long-
term pricing incentives to encourage more efficient
water use, are receiving serious attention. Rising
water costs also have forced businesses to exam-
ine their water use and find ways to conserve.

California's geography and history of alternating
cycles of flooding and drought led to construction of
a statewide plumbing network of dams and canals
to capture rainfall and snowmelt runoff from the
Sierra Nevada. The dams help prevent downstream
flooding and part of the runoff is stored in reservoirs
for later distribution. The system is designed to
collect surface runoff during winter months, when
precipitation generally is plentiful in California, and
store it for use during summer months, when rainfall
is virtually nonexistent. As long as precipitation
occurs in normal amounts, the system works quite
well, but it becomes stressed if precipitation levels
fall below normal for even a couple of years.

Begun in the 1940s. the state's plumbing system is
being stretched to its limits now. California's popu-
lation continues to grow despite droughts and
economic recessions, increasing demand on the
system. Locally built darns and facilities built 20 to
50 years ago, the federal Central Valley Project
(CVP) and the State Water Project (SWP) cannot
supply the needs of the state's mushrooming popu-
lation, myriad agricultural products and diverse
industries. Concerns about the costs of dams and
their effects on fish and habitat have all but halted
construction of new on-stream dams in California.
No new major water-supply facilities have been
added since New Melones Reservoir on the
Stanislaus River was completed in 1979.

Through facilities such as Shasta Dam near Redding
and Friant Dam near Fresno, the federal CVP.
operated by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation
(Bureau). provides about 20 percent of delivered