By Adam Nagourney, New York Times

LOS ANGELES — In case there was ever any doubt, forcing a 25 percent cut in urban water use by Californians in the fourth year of a searing drought is not going to be easy.

That became clear Saturday morning when, after a 12-hour delay, state regulators took their second crack at a draft of community-by-community water reduction rules intended to cut urban potable water use by 25 percent statewide, as ordered by Gov. Jerry Brown this month. This latest version came after the State Water Resources Control Board was confronted with 250 comments complaining about the first rationing proposal, and it reflects, in part, its effort to credit communities that had a record of conservation while stepping up pressure on big water users.

The original set of four tiers, with cuts ranging from 10 percent to 35 percent, has been expanded to nine tiers, with cuts ranging from 4 percent to 36 percent. The amount of water that communities would have to conserve was reduced for some, like Los Angeles and San Francisco, and was slightly increased for others, like Beverly Hills.

Read the whole story