LA limiting outdoor watering to two days per week beginning in June
As the region contends with a historic drought, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti Tuesday announced Tuesday that outdoor watering will be restricted to two days per week beginning next month.
Speaking in the front yard of an Eagle Rock home with a drought-tolerant landscape, Garcetti announced that beginning June 1, outdoor watering will be limited to two days per week for L.A. Department of Water and Power customers, down from the current restriction of three days.
"It's actually less strict than what other neighboring water districts are moving towards, where they're going to just one day a week," Garcetti said. "Angelenos have done more. In the city of Los Angeles we've done more, so we don't have to see a risk of plants dying or going to one day a week because of all the things we are doing collectively and have done."
Last month, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD) called on six of its member agencies, including LADWP, to restrict outdoor watering to just one day a week starting June 1. MWD is Southern California's largest water provider.
However, LADWP has chosen to go with two outdoor watering days instead of one, it says, because of effective water conservation efforts going back to the disco era in the 1970s.
"That has continued to drop our water demand every single year since then, to the point to where we are a very, very sustainable city, one of the lowest water-using cities per person in the state of California," LADWP General Manager Marty Adams said Tuesday.
Under LADWP's new order, all watering will have to be done in the evening or early morning, with no watering permitted outdoors between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. Watering will be permitted at odd-numbered street addresses on Mondays and Fridays, and at even-numbered addresses on Thursdays and Sundays.
Watering with sprinklers will be limited to eight minutes per station. Sprinklers with water-conserving nozzles will be limited to 15 minutes per station.
Garcetti also said the enforcement will begin with warnings, but it will escalate with fines and tickets if needed.
The restrictions will be enforced by the Conservation Response Unit, which will focus on areas that are using the most water, according to Adams. He said the department will re-assign employees to ensure coverage in all areas of the city, and might bring on additional personnel during the summer.
"We'll start somewhere around a dozen on patrol every day through the city in well-marked cars...We'll also enlist our other personnel," Adams said Tuesday.
The 2022 year has begun with the driest three months in recorded California history. MWD, which serves 26 public water agencies and provides water to an estimated 19 million people, is asking Southern Californians for a 35% reduction in their water use.
RELATED: Water districts targeting wasteful residents as historically bad drought continues
The agency, which declared a regional drought emergency this past November, relies on water from the California River and the State Water Project (SWP) to supply water to about 40% of Southern California's population.
MWD's June 1 watering restrictions applies to those member agencies who are deemed dependent on water from the SWP.
Along with LADWP, they are: the Calleguas Municipal Water District, Inland Empire Utilities Agency, Las Virgenes Municipal Water District, Three Valleys Municipal Water District and the Upper San Gabriel Valley Municipal Water District.
The six agencies account for about six million people in parts of L.A., Ventura and San Bernardino counties. Agencies that fail to enforce the requirement among their customers will face fines of up to $2,000 per acre-foot of water supplied by MWD that exceeds monthly allocation limits.
"I hated having a lawn, it's a thankless job in Southern California, pouring water on the thing, and it's never enough," said John Gegenhuber, who owns the Eagle Rock home where Garcetti held his news conference, amid native grasses and succulents.
Gegenhuber says he has saved 30% on his water bill since making the switch.
In recent months, LADWP has urged customers to take advantage of its rebates to make water conservation transitions less expensive. Residential customers can receive $500 rebates for high-efficiency clothes-washer purchases and $250 for water-efficient toilet purchases.
Andrew Brown, an Encino homeowner, told CBSLA Tuesday he already has plans to rip out the grass in his front and backyard.
"We just went through the LADWP website to get approval for the turf removal program," Brown said.
Another homeowner in the area was concerned about what she perceived as a waste of water in the hotter months of the year.
"I do see people just watering in the middle of the day," she said. "Especially in the summer when it's so hot. It's just going to evaporate right away."
