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BACKGROUND At its October 5, 2021, meeting, City Council adopted urgency Ordinance No. 2225 declaring a Local Drought Emergency due to the critically reduced water supplies and continued extreme dry weather for the protection of public health, safety, and welfare. Concurrently, City Council adopted Resolution No. 21-1250 declaring a State 2 Water Shortage and mandating water customers reduce their potable water usage by 15 percent. It was also decided not to impose any Drought Rates and/or Excess Use Penalties at that time and focus on educating the public on the need for mandatory water conservation. Since City Council's October 5, 2021, action, drought conditions remain in effect, with little chance of improvement heading further into 2022. DISCUSSION Drought conditions continue to persist throughout California despite late 2021 precipitation which improved the water supply condition but not enough to reduce the mandatory 15 percent reduction target. The cumulative precipitation through February 24, 2022, was 31.9 inches or 92 percent of average as reported on the Department of Water Resources Northern Sierra Precipitation: 8-Station Index. For comparison, the 8- Station Index reported 17 inches for the same period last year. The increased precipitation has improved water supplies; however, water reservoirs are still continuing to recover which is driving the need for continued mandatory water use reductions. For example, Lake Oroville is currently at 47 percent total capacity which is 76 percent of historical average for this time of year. Zone 7 has reported that the 2022 water supply allocation from the State Water Project was increased from 0 to 15 percent (about 12,100 acre feet). The increased SWP allocation is a definite improvement; however, with persistent dry conditions during January and February, staff is expecting that the State Department of Water Resources may revisit the water supply allocation and make further reductions. Given the uncertainty in water supply allocations plus the continued dry conditions, Zone 7 is maintaining the mandatory 15 percent reduction from its retailers. The City is continuing to track water use and make comparisons to the mandatory 15 percent reduction targets, which is determined using a month-to-month comparison with the State required baseline year of 2020. Figure 1 shows the monthly use comparison to 2020 baseline. Voluntary 15 percent conservation began in June 2021 and mandatory 15 percent conservation started in October 2021. City water users were able to meet or exceed the mandatory targets through December 2021. However, in January 2022 water use increased to 8 percent above the baseline target. Zone 7 also experienced a 4 percent increase above the baseline for its service area. Page 2 of 6