TheBakersfieldCalifornian.com

Kern County residents use 80 percent more water at home than the national average, according to a report released Thursday by the U.S. Geological Survey documenting national water usage in 2005.

And while national per capita water usage was down, many Bakersfield residents were bucking that trend — running more water onto lawns, over dishes and through faucets than they did the decade before.

Kern County is, according to the Geological Survey report, using sharply more domestic water than other major counties in the state.

The reason may be Kern County’s hot climate, low rainfall, large lot development patterns and remaining patchwork of residences with unmetered water service, said city of Bakersfield Water Resources Manager Florn Core.

“We’d be higher than most of the state because it’s warmer down here. We get the least amount of rain in the state,” he said.

The Geological Survey report said the average domestic water usage for the nation — water used in the home — was 98 gallons a day, per person.

California’s per capita usage was 123 gallons per person, according to the report.

San Francisco County residents used 48.5 gallons a day, Sacramento County residents used 101 gallons a day, and Los Angeles County residents used 111 gallons a day.

The average resident of Kern County used 173 gallons of water a day.

The Geological Survey also said Americans are using less water annually than in the past.
But data on the city’s domestic water system — which covers most of southwest Bakersfield — shows people on that system are using more water per year than they were a decade ago.

In 1995 usage in the city system was 185 gallons per person each day.

That jumped to 209 gallons in 2000 and 215 gallons in 2005 — the same year the USGS analyzed in its current report.

Core said the reason Bakersfield, and the southwest in particular, uses more water is the way urban growth has taken place here.

“We tend to have larger lots so people have more landscaping they’re watering,” he said.
The proof of that, he said, is the way water is used different times of year.

Water uses inside a home don’t change much from season to season, Core said.

But total usage swings a lot during different seasons because of the need to keep lawns and other plantings alive.

The peak in July is usually three times the water usage in winter months, he said.