A California lawmaker is dramatically raising the stakes in water management, proposing fines that could reach thousands of dollars a day and public shaming of people who use too much.
Legislation introduced this week would require the state’s 411 urban water districts to set local limits on household water consumption during drought emergencies.
Violators would be fined at least $500 for every 748 gallons of excess use.
An Alamo house identified last month as using more than 11,200 gallons per day would be assessed $6,800 a day in fines, or more than $200,000 a month, under the penalties called for in the bill.
State Sen. Jerry Hill, D-San Mateo, said his bill is needed to assure Californians share the burden of cutting back water use without letting some people with big incomes use as much as they want.
“We should all be treated equally,” Hill said Thursday. “If you’re not willing to save, you should pay a price.”
Hill said he was troubled by media reports of some households using thousands of gallons per day in affluent communities such Alamo, Danville, Beverly Hills and La Jolla.
The vast majority of California’s urban districts have resisted setting hard limits on household use because they don’t want to be seen as water cops.
Instead, most districts have met the state’s demand for 25 percent savings on average by raising rates to encourage cutbacks. Many districts use tiered rates that charge more for those who use more, but most have not adopted rules that impose penalties.
Hill said his bill would require each urban district to decide what is reasonable and excessive after considering the local climate, average lot size and average family size.
“I don’t believe in a one-size-fits-all approach,” he said
The household limit is defined as 1,000 gallons per day in the East Bay Municipal Utility District, California’s only major urban water district that has penalties for excess use.
EBMUD’s fine, however, is $2 for every 748-gallon units of excess use, less than 1 percent of the $500 fine called for in Hill’s bill.
“I think $500 is an outrageous amount,” said John Coleman, who serves on the EBMUD board.
Coleman asserted that Hill’s bill would undermine water districts’ incentives to bolster their defense against drought through actions such as buying extra irrigation water, storing water underground or building desalination plants. Why invest in drought protections if customers are going to be penalized anyway, he asked.
One San Ramon resident said the bill goes too far in empowering government to dictate behavior.
“This is Draconian,” said Rich Nidever, a homeowner who stays below EBMUD’s 1,000 gallon limit. “What’s the next? A list that tells you how much gasoline you can use or how much food you can eat?”
Nidever said he also worries that the bill would invade the privacy of homeowners who exceed use and then are exposed to the media as water hogs.
Environmentalists, however, say the public shaming works. Many homeowners who exceeded limits and were identified by EBMUD last year have cut their water use dramatically.
The district released the names of more than 4,200 customers fined for exceeding the 1,000-gallon limit — including Oakland A’s executive Billy Beane and San Francisco Giants’ star catcher Buster Posey.
“East Bay MUD was very successful in shaming its water wasters, while water districts in Southern California have not made shaming one of their tools to reduce use,” said Sejal Choksi-Chugh, executive director of San Francisco Baykeeper
She predicted Hill’s bill will open the door wider for more actions to reduce water waste, furthering California’s stronger conservation ethic developed from the state ordering water districts last year to reduce use from 4 to 36 percent.
The penalties in Hill’s bill would be in effect only during declared drought emergencies. Hill said there would be an appeal process for people if their excess use was triggered for reasons such as a pipe break.
Contact Denis Cuff at 925-943-8267. Follow him at Twitter.com/deniscuff.
