City Parks Dept. Caught Wasting Water, Despite New Law

Photo by scottfeldstein via Flickr

Even with the new water conservation law, the city's Recreation and Parks Department was caught on video by the LA Times hosing down tennis courts (and not using a water broom).

"We had a couple of gardeners who weren't following directions," the department's Public Information Officer Jane Kolb said the Times. "They were violating our rules." She told the paper that workers had been trained in water conservation procedures beginning in November and "they should have known."

But later in the article, Kolb protected the department saying they are doing their best to comply, noting that they have 400 parks and 10,000 employees. She also told the Times that the department was initially exempt from enforcement and that the law was also vague. "That's really open to interpretation. It's very vague. You don't leave debris that can cause people to slip and fall. We need to have that more clearly defined."

The Department of Water & Power said that was not the case. "It's not for removing debris and leaves," they said noting that exceptions for public health and safety were for cases like washing human waste off sidewalks in skid row.