The city of Sunnyvale is taking on the ambitious goal of reducing city-wide water use by 30 percent as drought concerns continue to ripple throughout California.
The Sunnyvale City Council voted May 12 to enact new water reduction rules and reduction goals. Sunnyvale’s new rules will go into effect beginning June 1.
The council voted unanimously to limit landscape watering to two days per week, prohibit landscape watering within two days after rainfall, require hotels to offer options of not laundering sheets and towels daily and imposing a fee of $250 for a third violation of conservation rules and a $500 fee thereafter. Warnings and education will precede fines.
New restrictions the city is taking on include not watering turf on street medians and adjusting building standards for new developments to include an element of water efficiency. The council also supported draining the pond at the Sunnyvale Community Center.
According to staff, all other fountains in the city have already been drained, but some water features enjoyed by children will be turned on for summer.
Councilman Glenn Hendricks pressed residents to ask themselves, “What can I do in my day-to-day life?” He added that the community needs to look at its water bills and make adjustments.
“I think we need to try and change people’s thoughts,” Hendricks said. “We have to change people’s behavior. There’s still work to be done.”
Council also voted in favor of modifying the budget to include $230,000 for water conservation and water waste enforcement.
The allotted money will be broken up into four separate efforts. Approximately $100,000 will be spent on upping the turf removal rebate from $2 to $3 per square foot of turf removed.
Graywater program assistance will take up $15,000, and the fee for the system will be waived while the conservation efforts are in progress. Enforcement will cost $80,000 and will include hiring two water conservation coordinators.
The remaining $35,000 will be spent on additional community outreach and modifying existing conservation programs.
Sunnyvale’s water usage is 61 percent residential, which means that residents will bear the responsibility for many reduction efforts. One chart shown during the May 12 city staff presentation detailed the population growth against water usage since 1977. Despite significant population growth, Sunnyvale’s water usage has stayed fairly consistent since 1990.
According to Jennifer Garnett, communications officer for the city, Sunnyvale has seen a 14 percent decrease in water use over the past year.
“Sunnyvale is achieving significant reduction,” said John Stufflebean, the city’s director of environmental services, who gave the presentation. “The residents have done quite a good job of conserving water in Sunnyvale.”
Last year, the city council made many decisions in response to the drought situation. In June, the council declared a drought emergency and called on residents to cut water use by 15 percent. Then in August, the council voted to declare a stage one water shortage emergency, which enacted a series of restrictions on water usage.
Existing water restrictions in Sunnyvale prohibit water runoff from irrigation or otherwise, washing cars without a shut-off nozzle, hosing down pavement, serving water at restaurants unless requested and having decorative fountains that do not recirculate water. Watering of landscaping is only supposed to occur from 6 p.m. to 9 a.m. and for 15 minutes at a time.
On May 12, councilman Hendricks attempted to amend the 15-minute limit to 10 minutes. He was advised that longer duration of watering is necessary for deep-rooted plants.
The council also discussed requiring the installation of water meters so residents can track how much water they are using so they can make a more educated effort to conserve.
For more information about the city of Sunnyvale’s water restrictions or ways to conserve, visit sunnyvale.ca.gov.