Ease up on the faucet, residents told

SAN FRANCISCO — Cities and counties across the USA are adopting mandatory or voluntary water restrictions, with the likelihood of tougher measures if drought in many regions persists and conservation efforts fall short.

One of the broadest compulsory orders is a 15% cutback imposed last month on a water agency that serves 750,000 customers in Northern California. The agency draws from the Russian River, which the state said could drop low enough to harm a fall salmon run.

Other places under some form of mandatory restrictions: Santa Cruz, Calif.; Birmingham, Ala.; Hawaii's Big Island and Maui; Florida's Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties; and the entire state of Georgia. Typically these are bans or cutbacks on outdoor watering, such as Georgia's odd-even system that allows homeowners to water lawns on certain days according to their street address. The bans also often prohibit washing cars and filling swimming pools and hot tubs.

"Clearly in the West and in the Southeast, there are a lot of conservation efforts going on — but also even in some parts of the Northeast and the Pacific Northwest," says Jack Hoffbuhr of the American Water Works Association, a trade group.

Some communities that charge more for higher water use "are bumping those rates up even higher," Hoffbuhr says.
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