The city of Redding on Tuesday took the first of what may prove to be several painful steps to deal with the worsening drought in California when the City Council voted 5-0 to implement the first stage of a drought management plan.
Stage 1 of the plan calls for voluntary measures aimed at reducing water usage by 15 percent. Stages 2 through 4 call for mandatory reductions to reduce water consumption by, respectively, 25, 35 and 50 percent.
“We’re well below where we need to be, and the situation is dire,” said Jon McClain, Redding’s assistant director of public works, who noted that Gov. Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency in January.
How dire? McClain said a letter he received Tuesday from the Bureau of Reclamation indicated water deliveries through the city’s principal contract would be reduced by 60 percent from the average deliveries of the last three years. That would be a shortage of about 12,000 acre-feet of water, or more than a third of the 29,954 acre-feet of water Redding used in 2013.
To illustrate his slide presentation, McClain displayed a recent photograph of Bridge Bay Marina on Shasta Lake, which, with the massive lake at a mere 37 percent capacity, looked like a forlorn outpost of buildings in a barren, bone-dry gulch.
Ironically, Redding’s rainfall-dependent water supply is the envy of many communities in California. “In relative terms, we’re very good compared to the rest of the state,” McClain said.
Relative is the key word, however. Redding has two surface-water contracts with the federal government, and both are administered by the Bureau of Reclamation. The main one is referred to as the Redding Contract, and it allows for 21,000 acre-feet of water from the Sacramento River. Contract language calls for 25-percent reductions during drought periods.
The second agreement is the Buckeye Contract, which allows for 6,140 acre-feet of water that is pumped from the Spring Creek conduit running between Whiskeytown and Keswick lakes. Water delivered through the Buckeye Contract primarily serves residents in northwest Redding, McClain said.
Buckeye’s drought-related language includes a provision allowing for “health and safety minimums” of 50 gallons a day per person. For comparison’s sake, McClain said an average Redding household of 2.4 people uses 280 gallons per day.
The Bureau of Reclamation has yet to report its reductions in the Buckeye Contract, but its shocking update on the Redding Contract prompted City Manager Kurt Starman to say that the city is already looking to retain outside legal counsel.
Such deep cuts appear to be “direct violations of the provisions of our contract with the Bureau,” Starman said. While the city is interested in being “a good team player and helping the rest of the state,” Starman said “it is imperative that the city protect its contractual water rights.”
Based on the bureau’s latest delivery projections, the current Buckeye allocations (which could change any day), and the city’s 17 wells, McClain said Redding should be able to provide between 25,000 and 30,000 acre-feet of water this year.
Redding’s demand, including residential, business, industry and municipal users, has grown over the last three years, McClain said. In 2011, the demand was 24,546 acre-feet; 27,029 acre-feet in 2012; and, thanks in part to below-normal rainfall last year, 29,954 acre-feet in 2013.
The Stage 1 voluntary reductions will feature a combination of advertising, school programs, operational changes and coordination with neighboring water districts.
The tougher stages would usher in base allotments and financial penalties for those exceeding their allotments. The latter stages “would be very cumbersome to implement” and would “open up a can of worms in terms of fairness,” McClain said.
If California’s drought continues, councilors and residents alike may end up longing for the days when water-conservation measures were merely cumbersome.
Jon Lewis is a freelance writer living in Redding. He has more than 30 years experience writing for newspapers and magazines. Contact him at jonpaullewis@gmail.com.
