May 12, 2008 11:58 pm US/Pacific
Dry Winter Puts E. Bay On Verge Of Water Rationing
OAKLAND (BCN) ―
The East Bay Municipal Utility District is recommending that its 1.3 million customers in Alameda and Contra Costa counties be subjected to mandatory water rationing because of a record dry spell that has left its water supply at low levels.
Staff's recommendation that a water shortage emergency be declared will be discussed and voted on at the EBMUD board of directors' meeting on Tuesday.
EBMUD spokesman Charles Hardy said Monday that staff is recommending that overall water use be reduced by 15 percent.
Under staff's proposal, major irrigators would need to trim their water use by 30 percent and residential customers would need to cut their water use by 15 percent, Hardy said.
He said the plan calls for mandatory rationing as well as placing restrictions on discretionary water use, such as operating water fountains and washing cars.
Hardy said the water district's board also will consider the possibility of increasing water rates later this year.
He said staff is recommending that a public hearing be held on July 8 to consider higher water rates because of the current drought conditions.
EBMUD officials say the spring of 2007 also was dry and the two consecutive dry years pose the greatest threat to the district's water supply since the end of the last drought in 1991.
The water district says that the Sierra snowpack that makes up most of its water supply is only yielding about half of what normally is expected in a spring runoff.
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