Agencies all over California are cracking down on water use - or considering doing so - as the state faces emergency drought situations after the driest winter in state history.
Up in Northern California, the Russian River Flood Control and Water Conservation Improvement District board of directors on Monday night unanimously adopted the 50 percent mandatory cutbacks in an effort to maintain as much water as they can in drought-plagued Lake Mendocino.
That means Ukiah Valley residents, businesses and farmers must cut their dependence on the lake by half in March, according to the Santa Rosa Press Democrat. The move came after authorities measured an estimated 28,512 acre feet of water in the lake, about 41.7 percent of capacity.
Folsom residents in the Sacramento Valley have already been ordered by the city council to reduce their water consumption by 20 percent.
And in Silicon Valley, the Santa Clara Valley Water District's board of directors is expected to consider Tuesday whether to ask the public for a 20 percent reduction in water use - double what the agency first requested last month, according to the San Jose Mercury News. Exactly how it would be enforced has not been decided.
Santa Cruz has barred restaurants from serving drinking water unless requested and Marin County residents are asked not to wash their cars or do so only at eco-friendly car washes, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
Other cities are taking a more voluntary approach.
In Southern California's Ventura, for example, residents were asked earlier this month to voluntarily reduce their water use by 10 percent.
