Outdoor watering can resume in LA County after Metropolitan Water District completes pipeline repair early

Outdoor watering can resume Monday, a day early, for more than 4 million Los Angeles County residents because the Metropolitan Water District has completed repairs on a critical pipeline from the Colorado River ahead of schedule.

Crews worked around the clock to make repairs to its 36-mile Upper Feeder pipeline, which carries Colorado River water into Southern California. A leak had been discovered in the pipeline earlier this year.

The pipeline was brought back into service nearly two days ahead of schedule, and MWD officials say they estimate residents and businesses in the areas that were part of the two-week watering ban reduced their usage by about 30% since Sept. 6. The outdoor watering ban was scheduled to last until Tuesday.

"We know it wasn't easy to heed our no-outdoor-watering call, particularly during the extreme heat wave the region experienced early in the shutdown, but Southern Californians stepped up their water-saving efforts again, as they have in the past, to help us through this critical shutdown," MWD Chairwoman Gloria D. Gray said in a statement.

Cities that were impacted by the outdoor watering ban included Beverly Hills, Burbank, Glendale, Long Beach, Pasadena, San Fernando, and Torrance. The outdoor watering ban also applied to agencies including the Central Basin Municipal, Foothill Municipal, Three Valleys Municipal, and West Basin Municipal water districts.

But even though the outdoor watering ban has been rescinded, several of those cities and communities still remain under outdoor watering restrictions that residents should still heed.

"Now that this critical repair is complete, all Southern Californians must still continue saving as much water as possible to help our region through this ongoing historic drought," MWD General Manager Adel Hagekhalil said in a statement.