Rains have begun to return to California as El Nino emerges from the Pacific Ocean. After four years of drought, water providers throughout the state have begun to question how state government should approach conservation requirements in the future.

In a letter to the State Water Resources Control Board, 12 regional and local water agencies asked the Board to take a holistic view of water conservation regulations, balancing them against water supply reliability and drought resiliency.

The agencies urged the Board to integrate any permanent water conservation regulations into a planning framework that also assesses water supply availability.

“This is a very complex topic deserving of a full articulation of regional needs before presuming a state mandate for intervention,” the agencies wrote.

In April, Gov. Jerry Brown ordered the Board to initiate water conservation measures in urban areas that would reduce use of potable water by 25 percent. The state is contemplating a longer period of emergency conservation.

“An extension of the Emergency Regulation to conserve urban water supplies in 2016 may be needed depending on the amount of precipitation (both rainfall and snow accumulation) that the State receives during the upcoming winter months,” the Board said in a notice for a Dec. 7 workshop that will address the potential extension.

The Board said the workshop is designed to solicit input on how any continuation of emergency regulations should be modified. It also would seek comments on how to account for any precipitation after January 2016.

But the water agencies that wrote to the Board have their own set of questions about the ramifications of emergency regulations. “What benefit was derived from the water saved?” they asked. Did it go into storage, help the environment, or benefit other users? The agencies also asked for an examination of the cost and benefits of the emergency conservation regulations.

And looking beyond extending emergency regulations, the water agencies wrote that the 20×2020 conservation framework has only recently been implemented and has not been tested under non-drought conditions. The 20×2020 framework calls for a 20 percent per capita reduction of potable water use among urban consumers.