Message is clear:

Last Saturday Crescenta Valley Water District opened its doors at the Glenwood Avenue facility for Water Awareness Day. District employees flipped hamburgers and made sno-cones for community members who enjoyed a relaxing afternoon learning about what they can do to conserve water.

This is an annual awareness event. Each year the water available for Californians continues to dwindle while demand rises. The battle between conservation and consumer has been going on for years, but this year the choice is to save or pay — really pay.

CVWD supplies its customers in part from ground water but must also import water from Foothill Municipal Water District which receives its supply from the Metropolitan Water District. In April, the MWD told its distributors that they would be receiving less water.

“We will have significant, 10% to 15% [reduction of water] for the agencies; less water this year than the base years 2004, 2005 and 2006,” reported Nina Jazmadarian, FMWD manager.

The shortage is due to two main factors, Jazmadarian said. One is the drought that continues to plague the state and the other is the pumping restriction on the Northern California delta due to environmental concerns. That shortfall to FMWD equates to less water for all the companies they distribute to, including CVWD.

This will result in mandatory water conservation required by July 1 for CVWD customers, according to Dennis Erdman, CVWD general manager.

“The message we want to deliver and to continue to deliver is to ask our customers to partner with us in saving water, particularly outdoor water usage,” Erdman said.

He added that most residents have already made improvements to the inside of their homes and, although more can always be done to conserve, it is the outside use that needs to be curtailed.