Robert Chacon
Residents in La Crescenta and La Canada Flintridge will begin seeing
more signs with green, yellow and red, but the signs will tell them
when to slow their water use, not their speed.
In the sixth year of a drought that has stretched across most of
the southwestern U.S. and reduced local groundwater levels, the
area's five water companies will launch a water-conservation alert
system today to warn residents when water use is critically high.
The system will use signs in front of the participating agencies'
offices that will display a three-color warning system.
The participating agencies are the Crescenta Valley Water
District, Mesa Crest Water Company, Valley Water Company, La Canada
Irrigation District and the Foothill Municipal Water District. The
agencies serve about 80,000 customers.
The signs are needed to inform customers to limit their use after
records for water use were set during warmer-than-usual weather in
April and May, said Mike Sovich, general manager of the Crescenta
Valley Water District.
"We were looking at a situation in April and May where we thought
we were not going to be able to meet customer demands. We thought
that situation could occur again during the summer, so we are trying
to take proactive steps," Sovich said.
Colors will be used to display what conservation status the water
agencies are in -- green for normal, yellow for high and red for
critical.
A green sign means customers should practice voluntary
conservation guidelines, such as not leaving faucets running while
unattended or unused, or using water for such activities as hosing a
driveway. When the signs display yellow, the agencies will ask
customers to water outdoors on odd or even days based on the number
in which their home address ends. Signs in red mean that the agencies
will not be able to meet demand and customers should curtail outdoor
water use to two days a week.
Fliers explaining what the signs mean were sent to customers this
week.
Emphasis is being placed on outdoor water use because it is 70% of
total use, said Jay Malinowski, interim general manager with the
Foothill Municipal Water District.
The water agencies will not penalize customers who do not follow
guidelines, but water officials hope their cooperation is voluntary.
The Crescenta Valley Water District, however, is looking into a
tiered pricing system in which customers would be charged extra for
high water use.
"In Southern California, we are in constant water conservation
mode," said Bob Fan, general manager of Valley Water. "We have
certain responsibility to make sure we keep the community up to date
on the water conditions."
