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HomeMy WebLinkAbout05/02/1989, 3 - SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY WATER ETHIC IIIn�I I�i�IIII� iII�III1 MEETING DATE. City OS� LUIS QBISpO May 2, 1989 OftZe COUNCIL AGENDA REPORT "E""NUMBER: From: William T. Hetland, Utilities Director (0k*0 Subject: San Luis Obispo County Water Ethic CAO Recommendation Review and comment on the final draft of the San Luis Obispo County Water Ethic and provide direction to the Council Representative on the County Water Resources Advisory Committee. Background San Luis Obispo County has developed the final draft of the San Luis Obispo County Water Ethic and has requested review and comment on the document. This document was presented to the County's Water Resources Advisory Committee for their endorsement before being submitted to the County Board of Supervisors for adoption. The members of the Committee requested additional time to review the document with their political bodies before taking any formal action. This document is being concurrently presented to the City Planning Commission on April 26, 1989 and to the City Council on May 2, 1989. The Commission's comments will be presented to the City Council verbally the night of the Council meeting. The Next Water Resources Advisory Committee meeting in on May 3, 1989. San Luis Obispo County Water Ethic The purpose of this document is to establish a policy on the use of water in San Luis Obispo County. Further actions by the Board of Supervisors•would be taken to implement these policies. The document discusses municipal and agricultural uses and distinguishes between indoor and outdoor water use. It also talks about turf management, public education, water audits, gray water, and reclaimed water. The following are staffs comments on the the key issues outlined in the document and the actions that the City of San Luis Obispo has already undertaken. Format The document should more appropriately be titled Water Conservation Ethic since it deals with water use and water conservation and does not address other water issues like supply development, impacts on growth, quality, treatment, water transfers or exchanges, groundwater management, etc.. The Water Ethic includes a lot of detailed information on water use and various conservation techniques. But it is long and generally difficult to follow. The policies are not clearly stated and at times the tone of the.document is negative. A number of opinions presented are not substantiated by facts . i '11111111PIRcity of san Luis osespo COUNCIL AGENOA REPORT Water Ethic Page 2 County Imposed Standards The Water Ethic suggests that even though the County only controls about 10% of the water use, they could conceivably impose standards on water agencies and cities when they contract for State Water or Nacimiento water. The State Water Project is already a highly emotional and politicized issue. For the County to further add its own restrictions to any agency or city contracting for that water would only add to the confusion and difficulty each agency will have in making a decision to participate in the State Water Project. To do so would also remove for the local agencies their ability to make their own decision on water resource management issues. Business License The Water Ethic proposes that business license renewal be used as a means to require at least 10% of all businesses' retrofits with water conserving devices each year. The concept of getting all consumers to retrofit to lower water using fixtures is sensible. Whether or not using the business license is the most appropriate means to accoumplish that is yet to be determined. The City of San Luis Obispo conducted an retrofit program two years ago which was aimed at the residential users. A similiar program for the commerical and business customers may be appropriate. Excess Runnoff A water use ordinance prohibiting the excess runoff of water with fines for violation is also proposed. The City has had such an ordinance since 1986 and feels it. is a necessary part of any water conservation program. Irrigation Schedules, Xeriscape, and.Landscape Plans The Water Ethic does not support irrigation schedules likes even-odd water or restriction on time of day watering. Both methods are supported by the State Office of Water Conservation as effective water conservation techniques.. Xeriscape is supported by the Water Ethic and encourages minimizing lawn area, use of native and drought tolerate plants and properly designed and operated irrigation systems. It also suggests that consumers need to change their aesthetic orientation and accept brown lawns during summer as normal. During a drought emergency wide community support for such a concept can be expected, but during a normal weather cycle it is very unlikely that people will change their desire for green landscapes. It is also proposed that. landscape plans be submitted with each building permit to make sure that proper plant types are being used and that the irrigation systems are properly designed. The City currently has in effect landscape guidelines that require plan review and provide standards for the design of water conserving landscapes. ,111111111111110111 city of san tuis ompo MaZe COUNCIL AGENDA REPORT Water Ethic Page 3 Education The Water Ethic does not support general education on water conservation, feeling it is expensive, a "self-gratifying process" and "deadens the senses of the public to knowledge which may lead to real savings". But the Water Ethic then goes on to say that if people are told on their water bills the amount of water used then information on water use and savings would be of value to them. The City currently provides its water customers with their water use for the same period of the previous year. The Water Ethic does support education on water conservation in the primary and secondary schools. Water Rates Water rates have long been identified as an effective water conservation tool and contrary to the Water Ethic a relationship between rates and water use does exist. The Water Ethic proposes an increasing block rate structure with unusually high block increases. Though this is an effective way to encourage conservation, each independant agency must make the decision on what structure and specific rates are appropriate for their community. r� The Water Ethic proposes that in no case should an unmetered water service exist. Most water agencies do not require water meters on fire services. Recommendations Staff recommends that the Planning Commission and the City Council review the document and staffs comments and and provide appropriate direction. Specific direction should be provided on the key issues outlined in the staff report. Staff suggests that the format of the Water Ethic might also be revised to more clearly state in the beginning its purpose and succinctly outline the key water conservation policies that it wants to support. The additional information can then be provided in the body of the report. I i - SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY WATER ETHIC lob BY VAN W . LAURN COUNTY WATER CONSERVATION COORDINATOR COUNTY ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT GEORGE C. PROTOPAPAS , COUNTY ENGINEER CLINTON MILNE, DEPUTY COUNTY ENGINEER MARCH, 1989 J,41 • r i j J SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY WATER ETHIC In California , municipal water use is synonymous with energy use for pumping, for treatment, for heating, and for disposal. Increased water use hastens the necessity to expand supply facilities , treatment facilities, delivery facilities , and disposal facilities . Also in California , Article X of the State Constitution mandates that water use be reasonable and beneficial (i .e. , waste is constitutionally prohibited) . During the past century or more , supply and demand was such that the concept of beneficial use permitted usages which cannot be tolerated today. We are now to the point where any one need must be weighed against another. The very quality of life that we enjoy hangs in the balance. This Ethic is a distillation of thoughts which have been developed through Statewide and local water conservation efforts -- efforts initiated in their present form by the 1976-77 drought. Past efforts have been analyzed to determine which may be expected to produce discernible water savings with the present awareness and technology, which have served well in the past but are no longer appropriate, which have been effective, and finally which are appropriate to San Luis Obispo County . The term "conservation" is itself reflected in the analysis , for connotes an image of constraint from the average or of a response to`­ a situation of temporary duration. It is also a term for the impoundment of water in a surface or subsurface reservoir. Thus , to avoid the inevitable distractions which the term generates of response to a drought or capture of runoff and to allow us to focus upon a policy of beneficial water use for normal future conditions , it is replaced with "responsible water use" or "water ethic . " Perhaps because of this dual meaning of impoundment and constraint, "conservation" is also touted as the cheapest source of supplemental water. Technically , this is correct , but the quantities to be realized are not likely to preclude the need for developing additional sources to accommodate future needs in this County. The benefit is more toward lessening the strain on existing facilities . The focus , again, is toward responsible use of a resource -- rightly called California 's most precious. Comparison : Municipal to Agricultural Water Use Municipal water use in California and in San Luis Obispo County is about 15% of the total water use ; but it is increasing , whereas agricultural water use is holding steady or decreasing . Municipal water users are generally not cognizant of water beyond that which is visible at any particular instant , whereas ag users usually have more of a sense of cause and effect . Municipal water rates are - ��v i cheap compared to other necessities of life, and waste is common. Agricultural water use is directly proportional to energy and fertilizer costs and is monitored as a business expense. Thus , municipal water users need constraints, as lifelong habits are hard to change. On the other hand, agricultural water users are basically self-regulating when kept abreast of current knowledge and technology. Optimistic projections of reduced water use in California by the first decade of the next century are about 15% for municipal use and about 2.5% for ag, 2% of the total for each. Municipal Water Use: Municipal water use in San Luis Obispo County can be characterized relative to the Santa Lucia Mountain Range. Coastward of the range, the total community use on an annual basis averages about 170 gallons per capita per day. Single family residential use may be approximated from 100 to 120 gpcpd with perhaps a 20% drop for each occupant over the first three . Multifamily residential use may be as much as 50% less due to less per capita landscape area . Generally ; it can be considered that 50% of municipal water use is outdoors (landscaping, washing vehicles , hosing driveways , etc. ) . Inland water use averages 50 to 100 gallons more, bringing the indoor/outdoor water use ratio of this area to 30/70% since it appears that the additional water use in the North County is applied outdoors due to the warmer summer climate. Seasonal differences are dramatic. Inland summer water use is 3 to 4 times winter use . Coastward the difference is roughly double. As a water purveyor, the County has control over only about 10% of the municipal water use ; but in terms of land use, building permit, and business license regulation, it has definitive input within the service areas of other purveyors throughout the unincorporated area . As a wholesaler of water. ( such as with the proposed State Water Project and a future Nacimiento project) , the County could impose water use standards as a contractual obligation even within the incorporated areas . Indoor Use: State Code changes which, beginning in 1978, mandated low flow fixtures (3.5 gallon toilets, 2.75 gpm shower heads and faucets) for all new installations has the greatest potential for impact on indoor water use. Unfortunately , retrofits such as toilet bags and shower flow restrictors and early low flow designs, which were no more than factory retrofits , produced poor results and have had a temporary effect at best . With a potential savings of less than 1% of total water use , the inefficiency of these devices may well have cost water use by turning the public sentiment against low flow devices and postponing the acceptance of properly designed fixtures . The problem will be compounded if retrofits are installed in post 1978 fixtures. �I� Fortunately, the current low flow models are designed to function properly ; and as time continues, the effect of the Code changes will have an increasingly greater impact. The low flow provisions of the Code are mandated for all new construction in the State and must be enforced by all jurisdictions. To enhance this , a water use ordinance should be developed to require retrofiting to Code with all changes of ownership.. Additionally, the ordinance should phase in ultra low flow (1.6+ gallon toilet and 2.0 gpm shower) provisions . These fixtures do work, but manufacturers have not been able to keep up with demand. Current building plan checks address hot water insulation . Looped systems and shorter pipe runs should be encouraged as well. Also, specifying shut-off valves on shower heads (which allow the temperature mix to be maintained) encourage water savings during soaping. For publicly operated and publicly used installations , lavatory faucets should be limited to 0.5 gpm. (This is presently mandated for all new hot water faucets. ) Both these and shower controls should be self closing (the most sophisticated of these being operated by a passive infrared sensor which detects the presence of hands beneath the faucet) . Though the cost of such fixtures is higher than ordinary fixtures , especially when retrofited , an analysis of individual locations should be made and retrofiting should be accomplished where the need is present. For commercial establishments such as restaurants and motels , retrofiting conventional fixtures with low flow (or ultra low flow) fixtures at a rate of not less than 10% per year should be enforced as a condition of business license renewal. In terms of hardware, these measures are perhaps the extent of effective indoor effort. The potential under existing law is to lower total per capita use by less than 5% by 2010. With implementation of the proposed ordinance , this could more than double. Outdoor Use.: Outdoors , the potential is substantially greater. As mentioned , outdoor municipal water use comprises 50 to 70% of per capita use. Certain practices can and should be stopped altogether. These include washing vehicles with a running hose , hosing driveways and other hardscape instead of using a broom, hosing buildings , and watering to the point of gutter runoff . A water use ordinance should define any use which results in runoff to streets , sewers , or off-site drainage ways as prohibited waste , establish fines for such waste , and provide enforcement of such fines . 3 The primary outdoor water use. is for landscape irrigation, and this is almost without exception done in ignorance. Few people understand the water needs of their landscape, the water content of their soil, the effect of weather, or the amount or effectiveness of the water they apply. Thus, changes in landscape water use have the greatest potential for water savings -- 10 perhaps 20% of the total per capita use. Concepts such as odd-even watering days or daytime water prohibitions draw attention to the situation, but they do not encourage efficient water use . The results may ;just as often be an increase in water use or public backlash against all water use programs. The term "xeriscape" (dry landscape) has become almost common and to most suggests a desert garden. This is only the extreme sense of the word. In its simplest form, xeriscape means a landscape where• responsible water use has been a conscious component of the design. It means providing sprinklers which water the plants , not the sidewalk. It means grouping plants with like water needs so that some plants are not overwatered in the effort to provide the basic water needs of others (in the bargain, less trimming is required, less disease is fostered, and less fertilizer is needed) . Xeriscape recognizes that lawns are the greatest water users in the landscape. (A lawn will evapotranspire as much as twice the .water that will be lost by evaporation from an equivalent size swimming pool. ) Therefore , lawn areas should be reduced to the minimum necessary for the needs of the site . Our concept of lawns derived from the English landscape tradition where the climate. is much more uniformly wet. It has been somewhat successfully transplanted to the Eastern United States , and from there it has been carried to California. But California has a Mediterranean climate , and the use of such landscape concepts (as well as Hawaiian fern gardens and tropical . planting) must be maintained artificially . Thus , the constitutional question of beneficial use comes into play . Each person should have the opportunity to satisfy his or her personal concept of a pleasing landscape, but the public need for water requires a balancing. Certainly those who wish a lawn should have one; but it should be scaled to a reasonable need, placed where there is maximal visual impact and/or where there is a defined use . Narrow , hard-to-water side yard or parking strips should be avoided . Mowed turf on hard-to-water steep slopes should be avoided . Certainly lawn planting for lack of any conscious thought should be avoided. Individual needs for a lawn , whether they be visual or physical , should be determined; and the physical pattern should be adapted both to the need and to the physical limitations of sprinkler patterns . Alternatives to portions of lawn , depending upon the level of use , can be hardscapes (paved or decked areas ) , mulched or graveled areas , and ground cover (unmowed grasses included) . If directed to �i 4 j41 water need areas, runoff from hardscapes can have a significant effect upon providing an optimum soil moisture content for trees and shrubs , possibly eliminating the need for any supplemental water throughout the year. The preservation of native and other established trees and large shrubs on a site can virtually assure this. Mulched and graveled areas (2-inch minimum depth) reduce water need by preventing direct evaporation from the soil and by controlling weeds and the water they transpire. Sprinklers should be of the type which produce a low angle of trajectory and moderate to heavy droplets , not those which spray a mist into the wind. Irrigation systems should be designed for the wind conditions which prevail at the time of day intended for use, and should have valves to control each water use area separately, recognizing that not only do plant types dictate water needs, but sun and shade areas define zones as well. Drip systems , bubblers , subsurface soakers , etc. can maximize the efficiency of non-turf areas by placing the water only where it is needed. There are two basic types of lawns , cool season grasses and warm season grasses. The former generally require more water; the latter tend to turn brown seasonally, but are less susceptible to permanent damage from lack of water. If we can orient our aesthetics to the natural coloration of the hills around us and accept the seasonal browning, a considerable amount of water can be saved. Techniques which can enhance the efficiency of landscape irrigation ) involve watering infrequently and deeply . Roots develop where the moisture is present, and frequent watering tends to maintain moisture in the upper inch or two of the soil where it is subject to direct evaporation as the soil warms . Having developed a root system in this shallow layer, plants are, thus , highly susceptible to wilt and loss . Allowing maximum lawn height will both shade the soil and encourage deeper root growth. Having sharp mower blades , and thereby not shreading the leaves , will reduce water loss through transpiration. For lawns , moisture should be maintained at a depth of 6 to 8 inches . For trees and shrubs , the depth should be considerably more. Incorporating mulch , vermiculite , or newly developed water retaining polymers into the soil at the time of planting will greatly facilitate this . If the soil or the slope is such that water begins to run off before it soaks in ; several short wettings separated by about an hour will accomplish the needed result. As a rule of thumb, lawn watering in the coastward portion of San Luis Obispo County should be limited to once a week , twice during hot spells and once every other week , if at all , during the rainy season. Inland, twice a week should be required during normally warm months. Established trees and shrubs throughout the County should suffice on one good monthly watering or even on a thorough deep watering at the beginning of the dry season with no subsequent watering. The selection of low water demand plants is an option.. It should be noted, however, that not all California natives are drought 5 �3- 9 tolerant, that many of the commonly used landscape plants are �._. drought tolerant if deep rooting is facilitated, and that even drought tolerant plants require substantial irrigation for the first few years and should not be planted when water supplies are short . Additional techniques involve regular checking of an irrigation system to verify that it is functioning properly , adjusting irrigation schedules to the seasons, learning to recognize plant stress characteristics as a guide to watering, checking soil moisture content, fertilizing with potassium to encourage root growth, but not fertilizing from late spring till fall as this increases water need, and scheduling irrigation during the morning hours (while avoiding the peak use period) when evaporation potential is relatively low and warming temperatures discourage the development of molds. To implement the above concepts , a water use ordinance should require all building permits to provide a detailed water use review of landscape plans ; lawn and other high water use plantings should be limited to 25% of the exterior site area for single family residences , unless equivalent water savings can be shown in other areas. For other uses such as commercial and multifamily residential, the high water use area should be limited to 40%. The irrigation plan should contain the physical layout and initial scheduling needed to establish plant growth as well as a plan to pare the system to the needs of the established landscape. Compaction requirements for the top foot or two of non-structural slopes should be relaxed to allow water penetration , the surface should be left rough, and plant selection- should be graded to reflect the tendency of slopes to retain less moisture toward the top. Turf Management : Turf management is a special case of the above , defined by the extent of the lawn ( such as a golf course or park) . Cal Poly is the statewide training center for the two-day Master Water Auditor program which trains personnel to determine the efficiency of a system and develop a schedule based on weather data . All turf managers should enroll . Systems where personnel are not readily available should have controller operation regulated by tensiometers , an anemometer, and a rain sensor. Personnel should be present during irrigation on a regular basis to monitor for leaks or ineffective coverage. As with agriculture, uniformity is the key to efficiency. Education: Public education can be categorized under two headings : general and specific . General concepts of water awareness , water conservation, drought awareness , etc. , which seek to modify attitudes , have F little, if any, affect upon water use. Studies are beginning to , verify that people who are fully aware of the concepts have not modified their habits . This type of education may be of value to individual jurisdictions with special short term needs. On a Countywide basis, and as a continuing effort , it is not recommended for two reasons. First it is costly , requiring large amounts of staff time and media expenditure to maintain the continual reinforcement which is necessary if past efforts are not to be forgotten. It is largely a self-gratifying process . Secondly, and of far more importance, it deadens the senses of the public to knowledge which may lead to real savings. Both in terms of public expenditure and of public acceptance, it is prudent to place the effort only where it is most effective. Specific information (i.e. , knowledge) , however, presented at an appropriate time and coupled with an incentive can have an effect.. The single most effective bit of education , which a water user can receive, is a comparison of current water use with the previous year' s water use presented at the time of water billing. Each water purveyor in the County should implement such a procedure. In turn, this information will foster consideration for water saving techniques. Specific information identifying the major sources of water use and methods to accomplish savings is then of value to the consumer. Indoors , not running the water while washing dishes , brushing teeth , and soaping in the shower will become more meaningful . Likewise , operating dishwashers and laundry machines with full loads , not using the toilet as a wastebasket , bathing more than one child at a time, collecting plant water while waiting for the tap to- warm, installing looped hot water systems , and purchasing top loading washing machines. In restaurants, serving water only on request and not running water continuously to operate garbage disposals or to wash vegetables can have meaning. Outdoors , once the landscape is designed, and for those landscapes which were in place previously, the education process requires technical assistance. The public needs expert help to determine how much water to apply to any one site at any given time. A media program, similar to the daily weather report , must be developed to advise people how much to water, if at all , during the upcoming few days . The Department of Water Resources has developed the California Irrigation Management Information System (CIMIS) with a network of weather information stations keyed to a computer program which allows individual farms with individual crops to be advised just how much to irrigate . This same system with additional stations and a program to address landscape water needs could serve as the basis for such a media program. Coupled with this , a water use hotline would be needed to adapt the general information to the myriad of idiosyncracies of the individual sites and to educate the public to recognize the moisture content of their soil or the stress characteristics of their plants . ( Individual water purveyors may wish to purchase and distribute moisture meters. ) - 7 The one exception to the effectiveness of general education is in L the primary (and to some extent secondary) school curriculum. Results will take some time and may never be attributable , but there is every reason to believe that water use habits . can be influenced if addressed early . School . districts should be encouraged to provide such programs. Water Rates : Water rates should be used to encourage responsible water use as well. Although the direct relation between rates and use is unclear, rates do have an indirect effect by providing an incentive for users to consider water saving advice. Certainly there must be a substantial block rate increase if a direct response is to be realized. (In no case should unmetered service or decreasing block rate structures be permitted. ) The first increment beyond the base rate should be at least double the base rate; the next increment five times , then ten and twenty times. Anything less is ineffective. To avoid hardship, it is essential that care be taken to provide each service with a reasonable base rate quantity for the needs of that service. The most precise way would be for each jurisdiction to conduct a detailed survey of the number of occupants at each residential location and to assess the water needs of each non-residential service . A questionnaire could be developed. Short of this , an average quantity can be estimated from average per capita use as mentioned earlier and modified as individual customers advise of greater needs . The shortcoming of the latter method is that those with less than average needs are not likely to request a reduction. The imposition of a set base quantity without regard to the number of people per service is inequitable when block rates increase substantially. Likewise., individual block rate quantities based upon a percentage of past individual use would be paramount to penalizing those who had voluntarily saved water and to rewarding those who had wasted it . In the long run, this tactic will encourage users to pad their account in anticipation of cutbacks. For • non-residential services , it may not bepossible to establish base quantities as anything other than a percentage of past use. This should , however, be coupled with an individual assessment of the potential for reduction . Although it may be complex to vary base quantities with the seasons , it appears inevitable with substantially increasing block rates . As a word of caution, few water purveyors run a margin of profit . Thus , if water use is reduced , revenues may be insufficient for operation ; and increased rates following such efforts most likely will be viewed as a negative reward. Rates should , thus , be 8 1 increased in anticipation of reduced water use. Also, it should be 1 kept in mind that a community which has successfully reduced water use has less ability to conserve in an emergency situation. Audits : Water service customers should be provided with ongoing leak detection assistance ranging from toilet dye tablets (or food coloring) to sonic detection. Similarly, purveyors themselves should implement leak detection programs when unaccounted water approaches 20% of system flows ; and water flushed from mains should, if at all possible, be put to some use (such as for construction) if for no other reason than public relations . Gray Water: The relaxation of Health Department prohibitions on gray water systems should also be pursued. In certain instances , this water can be reused for landscape irrigation , especially for larger sites . Separate systems for toilet flushing are also feasible. Reclaimed Water: Reclaimed water use in San Luis Obispo County is largely limited to golf course irrigation and to maintaining barriers against salt water intrusion in coastal stream aquifers . (The recharge of groundwater basins through individual and centralized percolation systems is a major factor in maintaining the supply, but it is not normally considered reclamation as the term presupposes the use of treated effluent which would otherwise be conveyed to the ocean..) State law has given the concept a boost by defining the use of potable water to be a non-beneficial use where reclaimed water is both allowable and available at a comparative cost. However, the economics of treatment for health protection and of delivery to a suitable place of use have largely precluded further development . Ag Water Use: Various Federal, State , County and university programs exist to advise and assist farmers in the efficient use of irrigation water. In general they are effective, and ag water use is expected to decline . These programs should be encouraged, as small percentages in the vast quantity of ag water use are equivalent in volume to substantial percentage savings in municipal water use. This concern should be tempered , however, with a recognition of two points . First , except for evapotranspiration and plant tissue makeup , ag water in San Luis Obispo County generally returns to the aquifer , so water consumption may not lessen with increased efficiency . Energy is the real savings . Secondly , the definition of irrigation efficiency does not include water necessary to leach salts from the root zone or water which must necessarily percolate beneath the root zone at the upper end of a field if adequate water is to reach the 9 lower end. Thus , irrigation efficiencies of only 60% as defined may easily reflect 80% or more of what is necessary to grow a crop. Irrigation technology has advanced more in the past 10 years than it did in the previous 10,000 years . Better hardware is being developed continually and over the full range of application from massive overhead systems to subsurface soakers. Old techniques such as surge flow, furrow compaction, and tailwater return are being re-emphasized along with new techniques such as lazer leveling and low energy precision application systems.. The real problem is that farm managers do not have the time to adequately monitor their irrigation procedures , and farm labor may not have the knowledge or incentive to correct obvious deficiencies. The mobile lab program sponsored by the Department of Water Resources (DWR) and Resource Conservation Districts (RCD) is an excellent solution to the problem. To date, it operates only in the Cuyama Valley in San Luis Obispo County. The. RCD' s for the remainder of the County should be encouraged to pursue a unit for the North County and perhaps another for the coast. DWR' s CIMIS program mentioned earlier should be expanded as well. Ultimately , it should be remembered that ag water use is a benefit to municipal users , as agriculture itself provides the basis for the rural quality of life that the people: find so appealing in San Luis Obispo County. The memorandum of understanding among the municipal water users of the Arroyo Grande Basin that their respective past maximum groundwater extractions will not be exceeded , thereby reserving a portion for ag use, is to be commended . Similar considerations , though • not as defined, have been expressed in San Luis Obispo, Nipomo, and Los Osos. The trend is beneficial . 3183x 1.0 APPENDIX ! 1 Listing of Concepts Presented �-- Indoor Hardware Low Flow Requirements with New Construction Low Flow Retrofit with Resale Ultra Low Flow Phase In Plumbing Plan Efficiency Checks 0.5 gpm Self Closing Faucets in Public Facilities Self Closing Shower Controls in Public Facilities Commercial Fixture Retrofit with Business License Approval Prohibitions Washing Vehicles with Running Hose Using Hosing as a Broom Gutter Runoff Xeriscape Water Use Considered in Landscape Design Sprinkler Overspray to be Avoided Plants Grouped per Water Need Lawn Area Restricted to Visual/Use Need Lawn Strips and Slopes to be Avoided J Lawn De.sign Adapted to Sprinkler Limitations Lawn Alternatives Runoff Directed to Plants Native Trees and Shrubs Preserved Mulch and Gravel to Reduce Evapotranspiration Sprinkler Selection to Reduce. Wind Loss Valving of Each Water Use Area : Plant Type, Sun/Shade Drip Systems , Bubblers , Etc . Cool Season/Warm Season Grasses Watering Infrequently and Deeply Increased tow Height , Sharp Mower Blades Soil Amendments for Moisture Retention Repeat Wettings to Avoid Runoff Once/Twice Weekly Lawn Watering Once Monthly Shrub Watering Low Water Demand Plants : Native/Common Varieties New Planting in Drought to be Avoided Irrigation System Observation for Leaks and Other Problems Irrigation Schedule Adjustment to Seasons Stress Characteristic Recognition Soil Moisture. Sensing Potassium to Establish Root Growth Summer Fertilizing to be Avoided Morning Watering Landscape/Irrigation Plan Requirement with Building Permits 25/40% Lawn and Other High Water Use Planting Limit Slope Water Retention and Planting Turf Training Program Controller Override Sensors Education Comparative Water Use Information Identification of Major Water Use Residential Water Use Habits Commercial Water Use Habits Landscape/W'eather Information Program Water Use Hotline Primary School Water Use Education Rates Increasing Block Rate Base Use Quantities Number of Occupants/Use Determination Avoiding Penalizing Past Reductions Seasonal Rates Anticipating Revenue Loss Audits Household Leak Detection System. Leak Detection Main Flushing Gray Water Use Reclaimed Water Use Ag Support of Various Existing Programs Mobile Lab Program Expansion CIMIS Program Expansion Noncompetition 3284x r.. IYIGG111w MAL.1160nq DATES ITEM #�1.� ��►I�II GI II I I�III����;0�����I�IhO►llllllllll I� city of sAn luis omspo 955 Morro Street • San Luis Obispo, CA 9340 *Denotes adim by Lead Person April 27 , 1989 RespaMby: 9' owncil V AO 97—F Atty. MEMORANDUM y� f N•M LTAa 1 �Y.`l'• TO: City Council VIA: John Dunn, Administrative Officer FROM: William T. Hetland, Utilities Director SUBJECT: Planning Commission comments on the County's Water Ethic Planning Commission reviewed the County Draft Water Ethic at their April 26 meeting. Following is a summary of their key comments and concerns regarding this document. The general concensus was the document is really a rough draft and that it needed to focus more on the policy and format to improve its readability and usefulness. Some of the specific comments related to: * the education component needed strengthening; * the unaccounted for water use should only be 10%, not 20%; * only some conservation techniques are highlighted and others were not presented; * emphasis seemed to be on residential water use when it should include water use county-wide from all sources, including agricultural; * the document generally could be more optomistic and not so negative; * it needs to more clearly state who this document applies to and what direction is it trying to take. Some of the positive areas that the Commission supported that were indicated in the document were: * utilization of the CISMIS data for the residential use; * development of water audits for residents; * circulating hot water systems. Finally, I think it was the concensus of the Planning Commission that the document needs a major rewrite in order for it to be effective. RECEIVED watethi2/wthl3 MAQ M j J cyckm SANLM0gGV0.Cn