One year ago, Congress defunded public media. Now that we're 100% community funded, please become a sustaining member or increase your existing membership today.
This is an archival story that predates current editorial management.
This archival content was written, edited, and published prior to LAist's acquisition by its current owner, Southern California Public Radio ("SCPR"). Content, such as language choice and subject matter, in archival articles therefore may not align with SCPR's current editorial standards. To learn more about those standards and why we make this distinction, please click here.
Mayor Garcetti Wants Us To Use 20 Percent Less Water
Mayor Eric Garcetti is asking Los Angeles to cut back on the water we use in the midst of California's epic drought. On Tuesday, he signed an executive order urging everyone—residents, businesses and the city itself—to cut its water usage by 20 percent by 2017—or face mandatory restrictions.
"Our relationship with water must evolve," Garcetti said, according to NBC Los Angeles. "We cannot afford the water policies of the past. We must conserve, recycle and rethink how we use our water to save money and make sure that we have enough water to keep L.A. growing."
Most of the order is aimed at the city itself, according to The Daily News. City agencies can only water lawns and medians twice a week, and they're being encouraged to switch to drought-tolerant landscaping when possible. City cars will be using recirculated water to wash their cars, and public golf courses will be switching to using 85 percent recycled water by 2020. The DWP will be publishing data showing water use for city facilities.
The city already imports 80 percent of our water from other regions, which proves to be a lot more costly than using our local groundwater. Garcetti wants to see that percentage down by 50 percent by 2024. He wants L.A. to build an infrastructure that allows us to be smarter and greener about the water we have: treating groundwater, capturing and storing stormwater and recycling water.
There aren't any new mandatory requirement for residents, but we're all being asked to conserve, too, the L.A. Times reported. We're being asked to water our lawns no more than twice a week. Garcetti would like us to take advantage of DWP incentives to get rid of our thirsty lawns, install rain-capture water systems and switch to more efficient appliances and plumbing. They also have a website with silly memes reminding you to fill up your clothes hamper before doing a load of wash and not leave the faucet running while you brush your teeth.
There's a timetable for all of this. Garcetti wants water consumption in the city to drop by ten percent on July 1, 2015, by 15 percent on January 1, 2016 and 20 percent on January 1, 2017. If we don't meet these goals, Garcetti may bring on stricter rules for the city, like not allowing Angelenos to wash their cars at home or making the twice a week lawn-watering rules mandatory.
One year ago, Congress voted to defund public media, eliminating a critical $1.7 million from our budget every year going forward. But they couldn’t silence us, and we’re not going anywhere. LAist is now 100% community funded and that means we’re taking our future into our own hands and turning to you to keep local reporting strong.
You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.
If this story helped you, please become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission. It just takes 1 minute to donate below.
You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.
If this story helped you, please become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission. It just takes 1 minute to donate below.
Senior Vice President News, Editor in Chief
