THE record-breaking California drought has snapped communities into taking action to conserve water, and Los Angeles is leading the pack with a team of “water cops” dispatched to educate residents about what they can do to help.
Rick Silva, a water conservation supervisor for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, has been driving around the city to inform residents when they might in violation of water conservation ordinances.
“We’re not looking to get violations as far as monetary violations, we try to educate people, we are still in only phase two of our ordinance, we try to keep it positive and just let them know what the ordinance are, we have the palm cards, and we supply those to them,” said Silva, during one of his outreach missions Friday (April 17).
He said that most of the visits have been cordial, though sometimes Angelenos can become defensive about their water usage.
“Some residents begin very defensive about what they might be doing, but we try to put them at ease, and we let them know as long as they comply with the ordinance, there will be no further action, and we find that to be effective, we just want to implement a change at this point, and have them change their practice,” says Silva.
Earlier this month, California Governor Jerry Brown ordered residents and businesses to cut water use by 25 percent in the first mandatory statewide reduction in California history. The cuts mean industrial parks and golf courses must immediately cut a quarter of their water use on ornamental turf, and homeowners will be pressed to replace thirsty lawns with drought-tolerant landscaping. Farmers, already making do with less water for irrigation, will be exempt.
Luckily for Los Angeles, past investments in water storage are paying off, and the city is relatively well-prepared to weather the drought, however, with no end in sight, and California’s rainy season ending, the city is not resting on its laurels, despite water consumption decreasing over the years per capita.
“Los Angeles uses roughly the same amount of water that we did 40 years ago, even though we have 1.1 more million residents in the city, and that’s through conservation policies that we have,” says Silva.
He also says that despite the changes that have been made to homes, including citywide installation of low-flow toilets, the biggest conservation efforts will come from curbing lawn watering.
“Outdoors is where the biggest savings are going to be,” says Silva.
In California, the drought lingers despite storms that brought some respite in December and February. The storms helped replenish some of the state’s reservoirs, although most still have less water than historical averages show is typical. (Reuters)
