Mountain View City Council declares water emergency, enacts restrictions
MOUNTAIN VIEW (CBS SF/BCN) – The city of Mountain View declared a stage 2 water emergency Tuesday, restricting outdoor irrigation for residents to two days a week, city officials said.
The Mountain View City Council declared the emergency during Tuesday's meeting to enact further water conservation efforts as California deals with dry conditions for its third consecutive year.
Residents of the city are assigned irrigation days based on their address, with even addresses watering outdoors on Tuesdays and Fridays and odd addresses doing so on Mondays and Thursdays.
The increase from a stage 1 water emergency, which was declared in November 2021, will also include the prohibition of washing paved or hard surfaces except with a bucket or for health and safety, washing cars at home except with a bucket, or filling decorative water features except to sustain aquatic life.
The city also mandated that hotels offer guests the option to reuse sheets and towels to save water.
The emergency also declared that all leaks must be repaired within five days.
Mountain View's water supply mostly comes from the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, with another 10 percent coming from Valley Water, 4 percent from the Regional Water Quality Control Plant in Palo Alto and 2 percent from local groundwater wells.
