Santa Clara water district relaxes drought restrictions
SANTA CLARA - Valley Water District Directors ended the drought emergency declaration in Santa Clara County and plan to ease some water use restrictions while keeping up conservation efforts.
"You can almost set your clock to it. Every five or ten years, we're going to have a drought," said Director John Varela.
But the near record rains of 2023 gave them a lot to consider.
Reservoirs are filled to the brim, and underground water is also topped up to normal levels. That's why the emergency drought declaration was lifted. But they left in place some mandatory water use restrictions, such as keeping outdoor landscape watering to only two days a week, and potential enforcement actions against allowing wasteful water runoff.
And the mandatory 15 percent conservation goal will become a "voluntary" 15 percent reduction.
"This is a very significant vote. It signals that our drought has ended but calls on our community to continue conservation and keep up conservation as a way of life," said Neeta Bijoor, a water district spokesperson.
District directors pointed to the loss of Anderson reservoir, the valley's largest by far, due to seismic retrofitting as one of the main reasons for continuing conservation. Drought or no drought, Leah Rondeau has made water conservation a way of life. Over the past couple of years, she has replaced the grass at her San Jose home with landscape rocks and drought tolerant plants.
And it's not just in front for the neighbors to see, it's all around the house.
And she says that's the way it's going to stay.
"Water isn't infinite, so I think we still need to plan for drought conditions in the future," Rondeau said.
In addition to the landscaping changes, Rondeau collects rainwater in cisterns. She uses it to water her plants, and to keep a small decorative koi fish tank.
"We save a lot on our water bill. Compared to others, I know our water bill is really low," Rondeau said.
Besides conserving water, she says her new landscaping also saves money because the cost of water in wet years and dry, isn't going down.