REGION — The Santa Fe Irrigation District (SFID) recently announced that in the month of October, its district did not meet the state mandated target of a 36 percent reduction. Instead, the decrease was calculated at 30 percent.
According to Jessica Parks, public information officer at SFID, the area was impacted by the warmest October on record — 7.7 degrees above average.
“This will, nonetheless, trigger the state to put the district on notice that its customers need to meet the 36 percent in the following months or face high penalties,” she said. “Since we did not meet the target, we encourage our customers to re-double on their water conservation for November and the following months.”
Parks went on to say that last week, Gov. Jerry Brown issued a new executive order concerning the drought in California.
“This executive order keeps the existing drought proclamations in full force and calls for an extension of the restrictions until Oct. 31, 2016 should the drought conditions persist,” she said. “The previous order was set to expire in February 2016.”
According to their records, the district successfully lowered its water usage by 37 percent since June, when compared to its 2013 water use data. Parks wants customers to know that while their cumulative water savings are within the state’s mandate, the district still fell short last month. With the help of their customers, they want to avoid not meeting their reduction targets in the future.
“The district provides many resources to help our customers reduce their water use to meet the state requirements through conservation programs, rebates, incentives and more. For most people, participating in the onsite residential conservation survey is the easiest way to save water and cut waste,” Parks said. “We encourage anyone that hasn’t already taken advantage of the residential survey, to check it out at sfidwater.org/checkup.”
