Like more than a dozen utilities delivering water to households across the North State, the Olivehurst Public Utility District, which serves about 3,000 households south of Marysville, was ordered to reduce water use by 36 percent. That’s the highest amount in the state and contrasts sharply with many coastal communities.
Tim Shaw, the district’s general manager, said the amount wasn’t a surprise.
“Seventy to 80 percent of all the water that we use in this region is on lawn irrigation. Right? Ornamental grass irrigation, and that is what the state is asking us to cut back,” he said.
The district has taken several steps, such as announcing that recreational sprinklers in playgrounds will remain off this summer, and reducing the frequency and amount of water used to flush distribution lines. Lists of the usual prohibited activities have gone up and watering is now restricted to three days a week depending on address. But enforcement won’t be strict.
“Unless you hire enough people to go out and somehow figure out how to regulate what people are doing in their backyard without a right of entry, unless you’re paying people to work nights and weekends, to try and find people watering when they’re not supposed to water, you’ve got no recourse to say, ‘Look, we told people not to water and they didn’t listen.’ ”
The district however can still track overall water use through monthly bills. On Thursday the district’s board of directors is set to consider assigning each customer a monthly water ration and fines for exceeding it.
