Even with the recent batch of rainstorms, the ongoing drought has grown so severe that Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on Monday called for increased citywide water restrictions and the adoption of a tiered water rate that would punish Department of Water and Power customers who fail to conserve.
Sprinkler use would be restricted to two days a week under the proposal and, by summer, could be cut to one day a week if the drought continues, Villaraigosa said. The restrictions -- the first of six levels have been in place for more than a year -- and rate changes could be enacted by spring if approved by the City Council and DWP.
"The level of severity of this drought is something we haven't seen since the early 1970s. We have to move quickly to address this problem," Villaraigosa said at a news conference at City Hall.
Quick action is necessary, he said, because the Metropolitan Water District -- a major wholesale water supplier to the city and the rest of Southern California -- has warned that it may be forced to cut water deliveries by 15% to 25%.
At the same time, the Eastern Sierra snowpack, another major source of water for Los Angeles, is almost 30% below normal for this time of year.
"I know it is raining right now," meteorologist Elissa Lynn, of the state Department of Water Resources, said later Monday. "That's not going to entirely make up for this dry year or the past two dry years. And we don't know: Is it the third year of a three-year drought, or the third year of a six-year drought?"
Water restrictions are nothing new in California, but since the last major drought in the early 1990s the state's population has grown by 9 million. Court rulings to protect the delta smelt in the Sacramento Delta and a prolonged drought along the Colorado Basin also have reduced Southern California's water supplies from Northern California and the Colorado River.
"What is being delivered here today is grim news indeed. What is being announced is, in effect, water rationing for the first time in the history of the city of Los Angeles," H. David Nahai, DWP's general manager, said.
The rationing would be achieved by adopting "shortage-year rates" to encourage conservation by altering the billing method used by the DWP.
The exact effect on DWP customers is unclear for now. First the DWP board must decide how much it wants customers to conserve, which will determine how to set rates. Villaraigosa said DWP customers probably would be asked to cut water use "in the double digits and it could be as high as 15 to 20%."
