Sacramento Report
By Ron Kingston

Water Conservation To Affect Everyone, Including Owners

Cities and water districts around the state are beginning to hold meetings and hearings about plans to immediately reduce water supply between 10 to 30 percent. The state legislature will also consider legislating mandatory water reductions of 20 percent in urban areas.

Water reduction means that residents and landlords will have to cut consumption or face significant financial penalties. This will mean a new paradigm for water usage. Instead of using as much water as a household wants, governmental agencies are considering limiting how much residents and owners can use based on historical consumption. And, if consumption exceeds assigned limits, owners or residents would pay fines of two to four times more for the excess water. The fees and fines would be imposed on the party with whom the agency is on contract.

What does this mean for us? If cuts go into place the average family that uses 10,472 gallons a month will have to make some tough decisions because government wants to make sure that water usage is being used for critical and necessary needs. In the alternative, owners will have to make some difficult decisions if the water bill is in his or her name.

One of the keys to addressing this issue will be a balance between interior versus exterior water usage. As a consequence, owners will need to cut back on watering the landscape. What will owners do if there is a swimming pool or water feature on the property? If an owner has a water line that breaks, he or she may pay in more ways than ever. Not only will the owner pay for repairs, but the owner will pay the water agency for the amount consumed and fines.

Owners who have master water meters will be required to make immediate adjustments because they will not be able to control water consumption by any resident.

They could face fines by water agencies because residents used too much water. Owners who rent or lease property to residents may try to require residents to limit water use. Unfortunately they will find that it will be very difficult to enforce.

Owners who have separate water meters may be adversely affected as well. Should a resident fail to pay the water bill with fines following termination, owners may find that they will be required to pay the water bill.

If an owner tore out lawns and installed drought-tolerant landscaping and made a number of smart decisions to make landscape irrigation as efficient as possible a few years ago, they may find that they will be hit by mandatory cutbacks harder than owners who did not take any action to reduce water usage.

If the property is to be changed to commercial use from residential use, the owner may really “pay” for it because the new users could consume more water than before. Owners will have to think pretty seriously about the type of commercial tenant. Moderate to heavy users of water could be told to go elsewhere.

In rent control communities, owners may be faced with additional problems. If they replace toilets, showerheads and faucets with more efficient ones, the owners may not be able to recover costs associated with those physical changes. If owners seek to limit water usage, will residents argue that rent is to be reduced?

In the Legislature, Assembly member Mike Feuer introduced AB 49, a bill that would require a 20 percent reduction in urban water usage by December 31, 2020. To complicate matters, it could be argued that the mandate would be in addition to local agency water consumption laws.

You can be assured that we will be actively involved in this issue as it directly affects your business.

Ron may be reached at: Ron@CALPCG.com
or you can call him at (916) 447-7229.