The City of Riverside is the first to file suit against the State Water Resources Control Board, a mere days after unprecedented water restriction went into effect.
The City’s argument? The delineation between which normal cities, required to reduce consumption by 24%, and “reserve tier” cities, only required to cut 4%, is “arbitrary and capricious.”
According to the Board, the “reserve tier” is set aside for cities who are “… reliant on local surface water supplies and that have at least four years of water set aside,” Riverside does not qualify, initially, as the city draws the groundwater from the Santa Ana River Watershed.
While the water board declined official comment, board scientist Max Gomberg described surface and groundwater as different things, equating the latter to a drought savings account.
The Board also sites sustainability, accountability, and reliability issues with shared groundwater aquifers, like the one from which Riverside draws. The state is currently developing separate rules for managing groundwater – a solution likely to be years in the making.
For further reading on this lawsuit, see here.
Image Credit: Flickr User jimmykl, https://flic.kr/p/ix7rmb via (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0