Fresno meets state water mandate for third straight month

For a third consecutive month, Fresno met the state mandate to reduce water consumption, dropping 28 percent in August compared with August 2013.

But city officials have an immediate plea for residents – to cut back use as early as this weekend because the weather will cool into the 80s.

City spokesman Mark Standriff said Fresno’s water consumption could hinge significantly on weather conditions.

“With this cooler weather we want residents to just think about turning irrigation systems off for one day or reduce watering by 50 percent on those days,” he said. “Everything we do now helps us to reach our goals.”

Fresno continues to have issues, Standriff said, with customers using water on prohibited watering days – Monday, Thursday and Friday.

The average 28 percent consumption mandate for Fresno must be reached on average from June to February, compared with water use from 2013. The city has reached the consumption mandate each of the first three months, exceeding 30 percent in June and July.

But as the year continues, water consumption will decline. As sprinkler use drops off in October and November there will be fewer ways to reduce consumption, but the city still must cut 28 percent, Standriff said.

“We have to keep an eye on the rolling average,” Standriff said. “We have a total of nine months that starts in June.”

While the August water consumption total just met the state-mandated reduction goal of 28 percent, the continued overall decline in water usage for the months of June, July, and August stands at 29.6 percent, above the cutbacks set by the State Water Resources Control Board earlier this year.

For September water use must decline 28 percent from about 4.9 billion gallons consumed in September 2013. That means city users must use 3.5 billion gallons or less. The amounts consumed must continue to decline through February. In February 2013, the city consumed just under 2.1 billion gallons, which means Fresno customers must use less than 1.5 billion gallons.

The larger consumption cut in July may be explained by average high temperatures. In July 2013, the average high was 102.3 degrees. This year, the average was 96.8 degrees, according to the National Weather Service in Hanford.

For August 2013, the average high temperature was 98.3 degrees, compared with 97.1 degrees last month, said meteorologist Jim Andersen with the National Weather Service.

This story was originally published September 2, 2015 at 5:02 PM with the headline "Fresno meets state water mandate for third straight month."