Home water use up despite drought

A water sprinkler system on a parking strip spills out onto the sidewalk and into the street in Bankers Hill. The Conservation Garden at Cuyamaca College is a popular spot for people looking to transform water-guzzling plants and lawns into a more conservative landscape. One of the displays specifically demonstrates rainwater catchment systems. Another shows the comparison between the typical lawn, the water consumption by various grasses, and a backyard that has a rock, patio and limited grass design.

Has San Diego County done a good job of conserving water in recent years? It depends on which statistics you look at.

Overall municipal water use which includes residential, industrial and commercial consumption dropped by more than 20 percent between 2007 and 2014, according to the San Diego County Water Authority.

But if you focus on homeowners only, the picture is clearly different.

Per-capita residential water use in the region crept up during the past five years despite pleas from the governor, water managers, conservation groups and others to cut back amid Californias ongoing drought. Thats the central finding of a new report from the Equinox Center, an economic and environmental think tank in San Diego.

The report, which will be released publicly Tuesday, showed that San Diego Countys residential water consumption climbed by 4 percent between fiscal years 2010 and 2014.

Although water districts typically track urban water use as a broad category that includes residential, commercial and industrial accounts, the center decided to pinpoint residential use to see whether homeowners are responding to public conservation campaigns.

The group found that the average San Diegan used 88 gallons per day in 2010 and 92 gallons in 2014.

We want to get a snapshot of where we are out there and allow decision-makers to use it in their decision-making process, said Ray Ellis, chairman of the Equinox Centers board of directors. We think the numbers speak for themselves.

The report noted that the increase in residential water use corresponded with higher than average temperatures and lower than average rainfall, with precipitation in 2014 at just five inches about half the regions historical average. The only year during the study period in which water use declined was 2011, which saw about 12 inches of rainfall.

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Home water use up despite drought