The Golden State brought down water use by 31.3 percent this July, staying six points ahead of Gov. Jerry Brown’s mandated 25 percent reduction.
Three out of four water suppliers in California managed to hit their water conservation standard. Between June and July, Lompoc breezed past its 12 percent savings target, putting up 25.4 percent—double what the governor ordered.
That gives the city an R-GPCD score of 57.3 for the month of July, meaning that the average customer buying water from Lompoc used about 57 gallons a day.
Santa Maria didn’t do quite as well. The city cleared its 16 percent conservation standard, putting up 19.7 percent in savings.
Its score, however, was nowhere near Lompoc’s—customers in Santa Maria, through the course of their lawn watering and dish washing, used an average of 93 gallons a day during the month of July.
No local water purveyor, however, was in the range of the Golden State Water Company in Orcutt. Called on to save 32 percent, they’ve managed to save 40 percent—coming close to cutting their water use in half compared to July of 2013.
Still, despite that two-fifths reduction, the average water consumer in Orcutt managed to glug through 140 gallons a day. That’s twice that of Lompoc, and only 10 gallons more than Lompoc and Santa Maria put together.
Overall, Californians saved 74.6 billion gallons during the month of July this year. Those savings are fourfold the 18 billion gallons California conserved during July of 2014.
Statewide, 290 suppliers met their conservation targets, 98 exceeded their standard by 10 percent, and 67 exceeded their standard by 15 percent or more.
Forty-nine suppliers were between 5 percent and 15 percent short of meeting their standard in California. Four suppliers were more than 15 percent away.
This article appears in Sep 3-10, 2015.