Marin Weighs Mandatory Water Restrictions: Report

MARIN COUNTY, CA — Marin County appears to be on the verge of enacting severe water restrictions.

The Marin Municipal Water District has proposed mandatory conservation measures, The Marin Independent Journal reports.

The ordinance would include strict outdoor water use limits and a prohibition on adding landscaping, power washing housing structures and refilling pools and hot tubs among restrictions, the report said.

The MMWD plans to vote on a proposed ordinance April 20, the report said. If approved, the restrictions would go into effect May 1.

Extreme drought conditions exacerbated by a historically awful rain season are cited for the need to enact such onerous restrictions according to the report.

Just 20 inches of rain has fallen on the district’s reservoirs in the worst rain season the district has experienced in nearly 100 years and the second-lowest amount since the 19th Century, the report said.

Marin is not alone.

California appears to be on the brink of another ongoing water shortage, The Guardian reports.

As of April 1, which marked the end of the rain season, the state’s snowpack in the in the Sierra Nevada mountains and the Cascades were about 40 percent of average levels according to the report.

The extreme conditions are setting up a clash between environmentalists and farmers over the redirection of San Joaquin Delta water that imperils endangered salmon and smelt, the report said.

A second straight dry year has left the state bracing for a potentially second straight year of devastating wildfires.

Wildfires in 2020 torched a record-breaking 4.2 million acres, or an estimated 4 percent of the state's land, The Associated Press reports.

Some 10,488 structures were damaged or destroyed and at least 31 were killed in 2020, which was described as the year of the "megafire."

Five of the state's six biggest fires recorded since 1932 occurred in 2020.

Read more in The Marin Independent Journal