HomeMy WebLinkAbout4/15/2015 - STAFF REPORTS - 00 ' ECEIV ED
April 15, 2015 r I ,f !4
2015 APR 15 PI 2: 16
Mayor Pougnet and council members Float, Hutchinson, Lewjr-Lani;
Mills, I.
My name is Kathy Weremiuk and I live at 699 Wilson Lane in Palm
Springs.
I want to address you today about our current water emergency.
As you all know, we are in our 41h year of drought and the implications
for Palm Springs are alarming.
Almost all of our water is drawn from our aquifer. In most years we
are able replenish what we draw down with an allocation of State
Water Project water we receive from The Metropolitan Water District
of Southern California (MWDSC, or "Met"). This year the California
Department of Water Resources allocated deliveries of only 20% of
our allotment, the second lowest allocation since 1991 .
However, instead of receiving any of our allocation from MET this
year, we have been informed that MET will be keeping all of our
allocation against the extra water they have "banked" with us during
the wet years.
This means that all of the water we use in Palm Springs this year will
come from the aquifer, and we will not be replenishing any of it.
This makes it urgent that we work hard to reduce our water usage
beyond the 35% the governor has mandated.
Last year, the City Council did a terrific job of amending our basic
statutes to limit water usage, increases incentives, and pledged to
reduce the City's own water usage by 50%. It was a good start, but
we need to do more this year.
There are some of the actions that the City of Palm Springs can take:
P1blic
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• Reconvene the City Council Water Subcommittee, and
the joint water task force to continue their work,
• Implement a water emergency statute with new
restrictions (like limiting water days),
• Increase incentives through our turf buy back program.
• Increase enforcement and education. Santa Cruz did this
in an innovative way coupling fines and attendance at
water school in lieu of fines.
• Review our building and planning codes again to require
use of the most up to date water saving technology,
• Lobby the Desert Water Agency to implement tiered
pricing. Currently we are the only water agency in the
valley that does not have tiered pricing.
• Work closely with the Desert Water Agency on community
outreach and education.
• Review the City of Palm's Springs progress toward
meeting the 50% reduction in water used by the city
government, and take additional steps if necessary. For
example, we could use Prop J funds to reduce turf on city
and airport property.
Respectfully,
Kathy Weremiuk