Water Supply

LA CRESCENTA — Foothill residents will be required to cut outdoor irrigation back from three to two days a week under new mandatory water restrictions that take effect on Monday. The new rules affect the 32,000 mostly single-family home customers of the Crescenta Valley Water District in the unincorporated county portion of La Crescenta at a time when the Southland’s main water wholesaler is preparing to cut allocations by 10% on July 1. Under the new restrictions, customers will not be allowed to irrigate their yards more than twice a week, for more than 10 minutes at a time.

Households using large amounts of water could face a dry and expensive summer this year under a rationing plan being developed by the Glendale Water and Power department. GWP is now seeking public comment on a mandatory 10% reduction in water usage by city customers. In addition, high users of water may be asked to pay a surcharge to help make up for the expected loss of revenue for the utility. The city has had a voluntary conservation plan in effect which has saved about 4% of water use, but now must go to a tougher plan in view of a cut in water supply from the Metropolitan Water District.

Embarrassed by engineering shortfall I completely agree with Robert Leff of La Crescenta. His comment in the Friday, Feb. 13, in “Our Readers Write” is overdue. I am a registered civil engineer; however, I do not work for Caltrans (I work in the water field). Those traffic signals should be designed and located by an engineer. It is embarrassing to me that a fellow engineer would place those “…stop lights on freeways…” as the writer referred to them.

DOWNTOWN — The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California has increased the rate from $508 to $579 for an acre-foot of water sold to Glendale Water & Power for the next fiscal year due to more water consumption and less supply, city officials said Monday. The district is planning to increase its rates by 21% in 2010, pushing an acre-foot of water to $700, said Peter Kavounas, Glendale Water & Power water services administrator. The rate increase is expected to continue after 2010 to a 12% increase in 2011 and a 6% jump in 2012, he said at a Water & Power Commission meeting in City Hall.

CITY HALL — Officials are continuing to step up their efforts to get the word out to residents and business owners about conserving water throughout the city. Glendale Water and Power, a city department that oversees water use and electricity, recently sent to customers its October newsletter, the Source, with information about the water supply and outdoor water conservation, said Atineh Haroutunian, a spokeswoman for the department. The department is also considering billboard advertisements and TV commercials in neighboring cities to get the word out about conservation, she said Monday at the Glendale Water and Power Commission meeting.

Area doesn?t need large developments I am writing to inform you that I am concerned about the proposed three-story building in La Crescenta at the location of Foothill Building and Lumber.(?La Crescenta building OKd,? Friday). I do not want a large development in my area and do not want any variances of the building and permit codes to be granted for projects that differentiate from the mainstream look and feel of the existing building designs and/or will significantly increase the existing number of vehicles on our streets.

CITY HALL — Glendale Water & Power commissioners expressed frustration Wednesday over the apparent ineffectiveness of voluntary water conservation efforts after city officials said single-family homeowners had all but erased previous gains earlier this year. Preliminary year-to-year comparisons showed single-family homes, which consume 45% of the city’s water, dropped from about 16% a few months ago to just .2% in the most recent reporting period. Glendale Water & Power has been trying to achieve a voluntary water use reduction of 10% citywide.

GLENDALE — Droughtlike conditions throughout Southern California achieved a new level of importance Wednesday after the region’s main water supplier issued a declaration, asking local municipalities to step up their conservation efforts. The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California announced a water supply alert that does not call for mandatory restrictions, but does ask cities to ratchet up its efforts to save water in the face of the dry conditions, spokesman Bob Muir said.

NORTHWEST GLENDALE — State and federal environmental regulators on Monday assured San Fernando Valley residents that the water supply is safe, even as regional water officials work to remove chromium 6 from local aquifers. Speaking at a public water quality workshop at the Glendale Civic Auditorium, Wayne Nastri, an administrator for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, reaffirmed the importance of an ongoing, cross-jurisdictional effort to track and remove chromium 6 contamination from valley industrial sites and, eventually, the groundwater.