The water board’s initial proposal — unveiled last year and estimated to cost $13.5 billion at the time — faced an onslaught of criticism from water suppliers and state analysts who called the rules too costly and difficult to achieve. In March, the state water agency revised its proposal to delay enforcement of the conservation targets and extend the timeline for tightening the water budgets based on outdoor residential use.

Individual residents won’t be regulated — only suppliers, who must meet their conservation targets or face fines or other penalties. The costs of complying through 2050 are now estimated at $4.7 billion — which is largely expected to be passed onto ratepayers — but water agencies and their customers will also save about $6.2 billion, in large part from buying less water, according to the agency’s analysis (PDF).

Water board staff estimate that through 2040, the measures will save 1.7 million acre-feet — enough to supply almost half the state’s population for a year. That’s about 73% less than the earlier proposal, which would have saved 6.3 million acre-feet through 2040, staff told CalMatters. Through 2050, the savings could reach about 3.9 million acre-feet — more than a year’s supply for the state’s entire population.

Local water providers told the board that the targets would still be difficult to meet and warned that the costs could hit lower- and fixed-income members of their communities especially hard. They urged the board to provide more technical assistance and funding. Still, many applauded the changes, which they said will soften impacts to customers and communities.

“Water suppliers will need to develop and implement new programs that require long-term customer behavior change and significant investments,” Chelsea Haines of the Association of California Water Agencies, which represents more than 450 public agencies, told CalMatters. “It’s an unprecedented approach that will require a level of commitment that we’ve never seen before.”

However, environmental groups and lawmakers say the weakened rules reduce and delay the water conservation that the drought-plagued state needs.

“Failing to prepare is preparing to fail,” said Heather Cooley, director of research at the Pacific Institute, a global water think-tank. “While surface reservoirs are full now, I think there’s a tendency to forget about water scarcity and drought.”

The authors of the bills that required mandatory conservation rules — former state Sen. Bob Hertzberg and Assemblymember Laura Friedman from Burbank — said in a March opinion piece that the water board’s changes “trample on the hard-won work that’s been done so far by allowing water utilities until 2035 or later to implement meaningful reductions.”

“The State Water Resources Control Board has decided to kick the can of California’s water future down the road at a time when we can least afford such inaction,” Friedman told CalMatters after the vote, adding that California must invest more in water efficiency or be forced to spend billions on wastewater recycling and desalination.

Water board Chairman Joaquin Esquivel said, “This is not a perfect regulation. We can never have a perfect regulation. But it is a significant one and moves us into a direction here into the future that we can all be proud of — and that is nation-leading.”

“The arc of conservation in this state has been an incredible one. Californians know that conservation is critical,” he said during the meeting. “What this creates is really a floor. And importantly, it’s not a policy in isolation.”

Although the rules were changed multiple times before they came up for a vote on Wednesday, the fundamental concept remains the same. Each local agency’s water budget is calculated from a combination of standards for indoor and outdoor water use at residences, certain commercial landscapes and losses like leaks. Other factors, such as livestock and recycled water, are also taken into account.

Suppliers must meet targets through a combination of rebates encouraging thriftier landscapes and appliances and rate changes penalizing thirstier water users.

A previous, more stringent version of the rule carried the hefty price tag of around $13.5 billion from lost revenues and the costs of funding rebates, infrastructure improvements and other conservation measures. The benefits of having to buy less water or scrounge for expensive new supplies were tallied at around $15.6 billion.

A jaw-dropping video shows the moment nearly 100 robbers ransack a California gas station in the middle of the night.

Surveillance footage displays dozens of masked and hoodie-wearing thieves taking their sweet time to grab as much as they can carry just after 4:30am on Friday at the station in Oakland.

The raid came just days after Oakland’s progressive mayor bragged about drop in crime.

The operation appeared to be well-planned with all hell breaking loose after a car was deliberately driven into the glass doors of the store.

No sooner had the crash occurred, the robbers were on scene and ready to snatch anything they could, turning the place upside down in the process.

The robbers were in no hurry and could be heard laughing on camera as the grabbed whatever they wanted

Meanwhile, the police were nowhere to be seen with the robbers seemingly taking their time. 

In video footage, those taking part in the robbery could be heard laughing as they casually perused the aisles of the store looking for stuff to take. 

The owner, named Sam, called Oakland Police Department upon arriving at the 76. He was allegedly told to ‘file a report online.’ 

The owner told KRON4 then he then attempted to contact the OPD Police Chief Floyd Mitchell only to be told that he had to make an appointment. 

Police later clarified that the call to law enforcement came after the suspects had left the premises. 

‘Video evidence was later reported to OPD that made clear the scale and details of the incident, including the large number of suspects, and the incident was immediately elevated to a Priority 1 incident, which prompted an officer to go to the scene to make contact with the owner, and investigators are now reviewing evidence and working directly with the gas station owner,’ OPD said in a statement.

Just days earlier, Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao, 38, had been boasting of a reduction in crime in the city which has been blighted by criminality in recent years.

Sheng Thao will face a historic recall election in November amid anger over her failure to get a grip on the situation in Oakland

Oakland has been rocked by violent crime in recent months, including murders which have soared from 78 in 2019 to 126 last year. (pictured) Police investigate a multiple shooting and homicide at a gas station Oakland in January 2023

‘Oakland is seeing positive results from new public safety strategies’, the mayor said claiming that it was a ‘proven data-driven strategy that focuses law enforcement violence prevention and community resources on individuals in Oakland who are at highest risk to be involved in violence.’

Mayor Thao said that since introducing ‘operation ceasefire’ ‘violent crime and overall crime have decreased in a significant and sustained manner.’

The mayor failed to provide any figures explaining how levels of crime had reduced in any meaningful way. 

Thao, 38, is facing a recall election less than two years into her term as mayor.

Increased crime and budgetary problems have challenged Thao since she assumed office in January 2023 after a stint on the Oakland City Council.

Oakland voters are upset about soaring crime in the Bay Area city.

They say Thao’s progressive, soft-on-crime policies have emboldened criminals and driven away businesses. It is a a familiar story in many progressive, Democrat cities across the country.  

In Mayor Thao’s case, she has previously decried the increase in crime, stating that the uptick began in 2019 before her tenure.

But it is lax bail reform policies and the failure to bring successful prosecutions even for low-level offenses that had led to the continual rot in Oakland. 

In Oakland’s case, the city has been rocked by violent crime in recent months, including murders, which soared from 78 in 2019 to 126 last year.

Crime overall increased by 18 percent in 2023 with property crime up 17 percent and violent crime up 21 percent.

And in the first four months of 2024, residential robberies soared by 118 percent on the same period last year.

Staggeringly, one car per every 30 residents was also stolen in 2023. 

The situation has prompted several large corporations to pull out of the city, citing fears for staff safety and the crippling impact of retail theft.

The progressive Democrat lawmaker is the first mayor in the city’s history to be up for recall, after a campaign to oust her gained more than 40,000 signatures.

Public support for Thao has been on the wane, with Oakland’s former police chief LeRonne Armstrong urging her to resign.

‘What’s really challenging is that not only the absence of the mayor, but the absence of other city leaders stepping up in this moment to make sure that residents and people in the city of Oakland know that leadership is in place and working to help solve some of these problems,’ said LeRonne Armstrong, a former police chief fired by Thao.  

Last month, federal authorities raided her home. Thao was defiant and furious, insisting she did not do anything wrong and she has no plans to resign from office 

Last month, federal authorities raided her home. Thao was defiant and furious, insisting she did not do anything wrong and she has no plans to resign from office.

Mayor Sheng Thao read from a prepared statement and took no questions  four days after FBI agents carried boxes out of the home she shares with her son and partner as part of an investigation that included searches of two other houses owned by another family.

Retired judge Brenda Harbin-Forte, who is leading the recall campaign, is calling for Thao to step down. 

‘She should do the honorable thing, and resign. The FBI raid is going to be a distraction, no matter which way you cut it. Even if she’s not charged, it’s going to be a distraction trying to manage this investigation and try to lead a city,’ Harbin-Forte said.