GlobeSt.com: What strides have been made in commercial water consumption?

Medley: California has issued statewide mandated water-use restrictions to preserve our resources during the drought. To minimize the economic disruption caused by cuts to water used by industrial, commercial and farming operations, San Diego's regional approach to meet these water-use restrictions centers around first decreasing ornamental landscape irrigation.

GlobeSt.com: How have these restrictions affected businesses here?

Medley: Although these precautions have been implemented, the statewide agriculture sector has still been hit especially hard. Federal water cutoffs have pushed one-half-million acres of farmland out of production and destroyed 17,000 jobs in California. Agriculture uses 34 times more water per worker than the average business, according to the National University System Institute of Policy Research.

A San Diego County example is the avocado industry, which uses an average of 450 gallons per week, per tree. While there are normally approximately 22,000 acres in production, due to water cutbacks there are now only 8,000 acres of avocado-producing trees. Cuts could also potentially pinch the thriving technology and life-sciences sectors, which employ nearly 124,000 people statewide and use 45% more water than the average business.

According to a San Diego Union-Tribune article, average non-agriculture businesses in San Diego County use 54,341 gallons of water annually per employee. Industries that use more than 2X per-worker average are, not unexpectedly, brewers, soft-drink bottlers, laundry services, food manufacturers, restaurants, construction, car washes, hotels and golf courses. Most employers will be able to cope with rising water costs by improving processes, upgrading equipment and planting water-friendly landscapes; however, heavy water-usage industries, which employ approximately 50,000 workers, could be forced into capital-equipment upgrades and improvements in operations.

San Diego's most-prolific water-thirsty consumers are none other than craft-beer lovers. For each barrel of beer produced, 26.2 barrels of water are required in a typical brewing operation, not including the growing of hops and grains. In 2014, craft brewers produced 3.4 million barrels while also contributing $6.5 million to the economy. Without a doubt, we have a thriving craft-beer industry that will surely require more water and just as surely invent new ways to maximize water savings. Two such examples are the IDD High-Efficiency Brewing System, which reduces water usage by 20% to 35%, and Stone Brewing, which has wasted no time in forming a companywide H2O task force to explore new water-saving strategies.