Water officials face mandatory limits

GLENDALE — Local voluntary water conservation campaigns are not meeting targets, and water agencies are looking to put teeth into their plea to customers for less use, officials said.

Amid the driest rain year in recorded county history, state water woes were exacerbated on Aug. 31 when a federal judge ruled in favor of halting pumping in the Sacramento River delta to protect an endangered fish. The delta has depleted a third of the supply going to the Metropolitan Water District, which provides up to half the water for the Crescenta Valley, 70% for Glendale and 49% for Burbank.

Glendale Water & Power and the Crescenta Valley Water District have both been pushing volunteer conservation efforts in the region to meet a 10% usage reduction goal, but that goal has not been met, officials said.

Glendale ratepayers reduced demand in January by 9%, but only held back enough in August to reduce usage by less than 5% from the same month last year, said Dan Waters, Glendale Water & Power interim director.

“Based on numbers we saw last month, I’m not too encouraged,” Waters said.

The increased August consumption does not necessarily mean that ratepayers slacked off compared to the previous month, he said.

The data more likely reflects warmer conditions this August compared with last, he said.

Still, the department is wary that its volunteer conservation campaign, while crucial, may not be enough to cope with the Metropolitan Water District’s shortened supply, he said.

Unless the upcoming winter proves to be a wet one, Glendale ratepayers are likely to face mandatory water rationing, he said.

In lieu of winter rains, “we will all be having to go to some sort of mandatory rationing of water,” Waters said.

Department officials are studying a city ordinance that pertains to mandatory rationing in case the measure is necessary next year, he said.

“What we’re looking at is to make sure that if and when we have to do that, which would probably be sometime after the first of the year, we want to be prepared if indeed we do have to go to some form of mandatory rationing,” he said.

The Crescenta Valley Water District, which gets half its supply from local groundwater, is also considering a rationing mandate, district general manager Dennis Erdman said.