LOS ANGELES — During the first five months of mandatory water conservation in the City of Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) has recorded the lowest citywide water consumption in 18 years, despite a population growth of half a million people during this period.  This accomplishment was driven by extraordinary conservation among customers, especially single-family residential customers who cut their use by nearly a quarter, and government customers who cut water use by nearly 30%.  Overall water use for all customers was down 18.4%.

During the first five months of mandatory water conservation,single-family residential water customers used 23.2% less water when compared to the same time period in 2007, when Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa first called upon Angelenos to conserve water.  Results for all customer classes are as follows:

Additionally, City of Los Angeles departments, which are counted in the government sector, but can be tracked separately from state, federal and other governmental customers, dropped 31.1% during the five-month period.

In all, Angelenos cut their water use by 17.6 billion gallons over the past five months and have saved a total of 37.7 billion gallons of water since July 2007.  Water use by single-family residential customers has dropped 27 straight months when compared to the base year.

Lee Kanon Alpert, President of the Los Angeles Board of Water and Power Commissioners, said, “We asked our customers to unite under the common goal of protecting our water supply and that is exactly what they have done.  These accomplishments are extraordinary, much needed and much appreciated.”

“It used to be that we could say that Angelenos use the same amount of water today as they did 25 years ago, despite a million more customers, but with this extraordinary conservation, we can now say Los Angeles uses less water today than we did 25 years ago.  This is a truly a remarkable accomplishment by our customers,” said LADWP Interim General Manager S. David Freeman.  “They have truly heeded the call to conserve.”

“Quite frankly, this level of conservation comes as a pleasant surprise at a time when water-supply news has otherwise been dire,” said James McDaniel, Senior Assistant General Manager of the LADWP Water System.  “On behalf of the entire Water System, thank you sincerely.”

On June 1, 2009, the City of Los Angeles instituted the mandatory water conservation program in response to three consecutive years of statewide drought.  The program restricts sprinkler watering to Mondays and Thursdays only and includes other provisions to save water such as prohibiting watering between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. daily, prohibiting hosing down driveways and sidewalks and water runoff, requiring all leaks be fixed and only using hoses fitted with shut-off nozzles, among other measures.  Under mandatory water conservation, shortage year water rates were also instituted.  Shortage year rates are a modified pricing schedule which reduces the amount of water customers can use at the lowest price.  Customers who use more water than they are allotted at the lowest price pay a higher rate for each additional billing unit used (a billing unit is 748 gallons) .

For tips on ways to conserve water, and to get information on LADWP’s numerous rebate programs, customers should visit www.ladwp.com or call 1-800-DIAL DWP and following the prompts.  The newest rebate program, called the Turf Removal Program, offers customers rebates of $1 per square foot of lawn removed and replaced by drought tolerant plants or permeable hardscape.  Click here for more info on this and other rebate programs.

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, the nation’s largest municipal utility, provides reliable, low-cost water and power services to Los Angeles residents and businesses in an environmentally responsible manner. LADWP services about 1.4 million electric customers and 680,000 water customers in Los Angeles. 

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