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How Bakersfield avoided dry-season rationing woes
| Sunday, Oct 7 2007 9:25 PM
Last Updated: Monday, Oct 8 2007 7:30 AM
Art and Lorraine Unger turned off the sprinklers in their front yard last year and haven't turned them on since.
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In place of the patch of dead grass now in front of the house, the couple plan to put native plants, which use about one-quarter the amount of water as grass.
"We're living in an area that's a man-made desert and we just don't believe we should be growing plants that are water-intensive," said Lorraine, who belongs to local chapters of the Sierra Club and the California Native Plant Society. "Because there is an end to the water."
Such efforts to conserve water are always a smart approach, local water officials said. But officials stopped short of advocating that everyone go to such extremes at this time.
While other parts of the state are in the grips of a major water shortage due to drought conditions and cutbacks in water exports from Northern California, Bakersfield has been relatively untouched by the current crisis.
In Long Beach, officials have limited lawn watering and in Los Angeles the mayor called for people to cut water consumption by 10 percent due to decreased water supplies.
Bakersfield, on the other hand, has had no such call for ramped-up conservation.
Why are we so lucky?
"We're a little bit more insulated because we're not wholly dependent on the State Water Project," said Tim Treloar, district manager for California Water Services Co., referring to the network of reservoirs, aqueducts, power plants and pumping plants that delivers water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta in Northern California to cities, farms and industries in the San Francisco Bay Area, the San Joaquin Valley and Southern California.
In some of those communities, the State Water Project supplies 70 percent to 80 percent of the water, Treloar said.
For a large part of Bakersfield, however, the situation is just the opposite. About 75 percent of water supplied to Cal Water and city of Bakersfield water customers is from groundwater, local officials said.
Water from the State Water Project makes up just a fraction of the residential water supply.
Some smaller local water companies, like Oildale Mutual Water Company, rely more heavily on state water obtained through the Kern County Water Agency's Improvement District No. 4. But those companies, too, have been buffered from shortages this year because water managers have been able to draw on stored groundwater as a backup.
The ability to store water underground has largely helped shield Bakersfield, with its desert climate and scant rainfall, from major water crises. That's due in large part to the Kern River. Before Isabella Dam was built, the river regularly flooded the valley floor, creating a large swath of ground perfect for soaking up and storing water. Local water providers have capitalized on this underground reservoir and diverted water in wet years to areas where it can seep into the ground and be stored for dry years.
As for Kern River water, some is treated in water treatment plants and some is used for watering crops. The rest is strategically channeled to areas where it seeps through the ground to be stored and pumped in drier years.
It also helps that most of the water used locally makes its way back into the ground. Whether it's applied to crops or sprinkled on lawns -- about 60 percent of residential water use is on grass lawns -- the water eventually ends up back in the ground instead of a river running out to the ocean, as happens in other areas.
That doesn't mean the underground supply is endless.
"It's important to remember that as we continue to tap our groundwater resources we might also need to face increased conservation measures," said Jim Beck, general manager of the Kern County Water Agency.
"This year has been very dry, and the forecast for next year is the same or worse," he said, adding that water supplies could be further affected by a recent court ruling that could reduce the amount of water pumped out of the delta by up to one-third.
A reduction in groundwater supplies could also drive up water costs if wells have to be drilled deeper, said Cal Water's Treloar.
Almost all local water providers have conservation programs in place. The city and Cal Water run annual radio and television ads promoting ways to conserve water. Oildale Mutual has a summertime water patrol to spot excessive runoff and work with homeowners to fix the problem.
Next year, Cal Water Service will quadruple its conservation budget from $100,000 to $400,000 to fund programs to encourage homeowners to switch to low-flow toilets and showerheads.
Cal Water also is about to embark on a major program to outfit homes with water meters. About half of Cal Water's 60,000 residential customers pay a flat rate for water, rather than a rate based on the amount used.
Under state law, that must change.
A plan to install the meters over the next decade is pending before the Public Utilities Commission and is expected to be approved by the end of the year.