City of Santa Cruz water restrictions begin

Mandatory water restrictions are just hours away on the Central Coast.

Santa Cruz will be limiting your water use starting May 1st.

Officials say it’s necessary after not getting enough rain this year.

Just a few weeks ago, the city council issued the stage one water shortage. Though the city has seen some rain since, the water department wants to make sure the water lasts for years to come.

“We want customers to be aware that our storage is very limited and we need to use water very wisely,” said Rosemary Menard, director of the Santa Cruz Water Department.

That message will be stressed from May 1st through October 31st.

That’s why they asked for the stage one water shortage alert in early April.

Despite last year’s storms and flooding, they say in 2018, there just wasn’t enough rain and they need to be ready in case it stays that way.

“We don’t have enough storage to carry us through multiple years of dry winters of one after another, after another,” Mendard said, “This is what happened in the winter of 2013 – 2014 and the 2014 -2015 winter, that really put us in a very dire situation.”

Restrictions include no landscape watering between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m., hoses must have nozzles and restaurants can only serve water upon request.

The new rules also come with penalties which the water department says it hopefully won’t need to use.

“People are very water wise,” Menard said, “We haven’t seen a huge rebound since the two years that we did rationing and we know people here take it really seriously.”

The Santa Cruz Water Department does have free hose nozzles, low flow shower heads and faucet aerators to help you reduce your water usage.

Just head to their offices at 212 Locust Avenue near downtown Santa Cruz to pick them up.