*The giant Metropolitan Water District imposed the first restrictions to conserve water on Tuesday.
With information from CalMatters
Unprecedented water conservation restrictions are expected for some 6 million Southern Californians, a sign of a deepening drought in counties that rely on water piped from the state's dry reservoirs.
The Metropolitan Water District board today voted unanimously to require six major water suppliers and the dozens of local cities and districts they supply to impose one of two options: limit residents to outdoor watering once a week or reduce total water use below a set target.
Water suppliers must have plans in place to monitor their customers, and if they fail to impose the restrictions to conserve water, they could face fines of $2,000 for each additional acre-foot of water that exceeds their monthly allocation limits, starting in June, according to Metropolitan.
The water conservation restrictions target portions of Los Angeles, Ventura and San Bernardino counties that rely heavily on water from drought-stricken Northern California rivers transported south through the State Water Project.
"Right now, one-third of our region, 6 million Southern Californians in parts of Los Angeles, Ventura and San Bernardino counties, face a very real and immediate water stress challenge," said Metropolitan Water District General Manager Adel Hagekhalil.
"Today, these areas rely on extremely limited supplies from Northern California. And there is not enough supply available to meet normal demands in these areas."
Reducing outdoor watering to one day a week would be a big change for arid and densely populated areas, where many people water their lawns and gardens.
Southern Californians have heard for decades about the dangers of drought, but residential water use per person has increased in the past two years, despite the severe drought. Experts say conservation falters in the region because restrictions to conserve water are largely voluntary and their water never seems to run out.
"This is crazy but not unexpected," Peter Kraut, a member of the Calabasas City Council in the San Fernando Valley, told the metro board, which is made up of 38 city and local district officials. "I'm appalled that such a drastic change is happening in such a short period of time."
"This plan will result not only in brown grass, but also in the death of countless trees. The damage to our environment will take decades to repair," added Kraut.
Today's mandate is the first outdoor watering restriction imposed by the giant water-importing agency, which supplies 19 million people in California. Tighter water conservation restrictions may come later, metro officials warned: water suppliers should also prepare to ban all outdoor irrigation starting in September, if necessary, as California suffers through one of its driest periods on record.
The six affected water suppliers are the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, Las Virgenes Municipal Water District, Upper San Gabriel Valley Municipal Water District and Three Valleys Municipal Water District, all in Los Angeles County, and Calleguas Municipal Water District in Ventura, County and the Inland Empire Utilities Agency in San Bernardino County.
Approximately 13 million other Southern Californians are not affected by water conservation restrictions because they are not as dependent on water imported through the State Water Project. They receive Metropolitan's imports from the Colorado River, most of which are sent to Orange, San Diego and Imperial counties.
Metropolitan has been working to increase the number of customers who can receive water from the Colorado River to reduce reliance on the state's struggling aqueduct. The Colorado River, however, also faces extreme drought, and deliveries to California, Nevada and Arizona are being cut under an agreement signed by the states in December.
The extent to which each agency must reduce customer water use under Metropolitan's order depends on how much each relies on the state aqueduct compared to other sources, such as groundwater or recycled wastewater.
Water agencies are still figuring out the details. Some local water providers urged the board at today's meeting to allow them to continue watering sports fields and parks more frequently so the grass doesn't dry out.
Two of the six rely almost entirely on state aqueduct supplies: the Las Virgenes Municipal Water District, which serves 75,000 residents west of Los Angeles, and the Calleguas Municipal Water District, which serves 19 agencies and cities in southeastern Ventura County.
Some communities served by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, the Inland Empire Utilities Agency and the Upper San Gabriel Valley Municipal Water District have other sources that can cushion the blow from the new mandate. Los Angeles DWP spokeswoman Ellen Cheng did not respond to multiple inquiries about which parts of the city will be affected.
Some of the affected agencies, such as Las Virgenes in Calabasas and nearby cities in western Los Angeles County, have already cracked down on residents by imposing new rates and increasing penalties, with mixed success. Others, including the Los Angeles DWP, which has limited outdoor watering to three days a week since 2009, have not added new restrictions to conserve water during the current drought.
The Upper San Gabriel Valley Municipal Water District, which serves one million people in 19 cities from South Pasadena to Azusa, will soon meet with its local retailers to determine what water conservation restrictions to implement to comply with the new order.
Although his administration ordered water providers to step up their drought responses, Gov. Gavin Newsom has largely left it to local water agencies to coax or demand cuts in water use during some of the driest years on record in the state.
About half of the water flowing through the taps of Southern Californians comes from elsewhere, from Northern California rivers, the Colorado River or the Owens Valley. Although the Metropolitan Water District entered 2021 with record amounts in storage, the past three years have seen the lowest total deliveries from Northern California reservoirs.
Metropolitan's decision to tighten restrictions to conserve water comes on the heels of the driest January, February and March on record. In March, state officials reduced deliveries from the state aqueduct to only 5 percent of requested supplies.
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