Thanks to a wet winter in many parts of California, staff at the State Water Resources Control Board is proposing a major policy change that includes revoking the statewide mandatory conservation rate of 25-percent. The Board’s climate and conservation manager, Max Gomberg, says local water providers would instead be required to conserve by an amount equal to any projected shortfall, based on three more dry years…

click to listen to Max Gomberg

The Nevada Irrigation District recently asked for more local control of conservation, while also rescinding its local drought declaration. Their conservation rate was recently reduced from 36-percent, the state maximum, to 33-percent. The draft proposal comes after Governor Brown issued a new executive order declaring that drought conditions persist. The Director of the State Department of Water Resources, Mark Cowin, says California must also take permanent action, to reduce the likelihood of more frequent droughts…

click to listen to Mark Cowin

If the Water Resources Control Board approves the draft plan, the new rules would take effect on June 1st, and then re-evulated next January.