East Bay water managers are mulling a slew of measures - from ordinary bans on car washing to drastic water bill increases - to protect their critically low reservoirs.
Other Bay Area water districts haven't reached that point. Yet.
But amid concerns about changing weather patterns and the ailing Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, many consumers and businesses in the region could see changes over coming years in where they get their water, how it gets to them and what they will be permitted to use it for. One element isn't likely change: Water users will be asked to do less with less.
"All the research around the impact of climate change in California shows potential prolonged droughts, drier winters, more wild swings between drier years and wet years," said Tony Winnicker, spokesman for the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, which provides water to residents of the city as well as communities on the Peninsula. "As water agencies and as consumers, we need to manage our water more wisely. There will never again be a period in California where we don't have to think about water conservation."
Read more at San Francisco Chronicle.
