cut water

Some communities in the Central Valley have faced unworkable requirements to cut water use dramatically and start paying high fees for exceeding those limits, said Jennifer Clary, state director for the group Clean Water Action.

While the company has indeed taken steps to cut water usage at its facilities, its calculations don’t account for the massive water needs of the power plants that keep the lights on at those very same facilities.

The rules are individualized to retail water utilities and would require some agencies to cut water usage by more than 30% within the next 16 years.

Managers of the facility said they’ve limited pumping in recent months after steelhead and salmon moved into the area, and have further cut water exports to minimal levels in recent weeks because of flow requirements for another species, longfin smelt.

Short-term efforts to cut water use in the region rely partly on payments of federal funds to agricultural landowners, water districts, tribes and cities that have agreed to reduce usage.