At its regularly scheduled board meeting, Metropolitan Water District voted to rescind the historic emergency water conservation restrictions for 6.6 million people in its State Water Project-dependent areas, signaling a drastic improvement in drought and hydrologic conditions. All DWP and Las Virgenes Municipal Water District customers are now able to irrigate more than once a week. On Tuesday, the LVMWD Board of Directors also adopted changes to its Code that allow for the use of flow restriction devices in perpetuity, regardless of drought and water supply conditions, for egregious water abusers. LVMWD customers, however, conserved water at a very high level. In the latter half of 2022, customers achieved an average of a 40% reduction in usage, which is unprecedented. Approximately 82% of customers stayed below the excessive tier of their water allocations throughout the drought; only about 18% exceeded one and a half times their water budget for four or more months. About 60% of customers stayed within their reduced water budgets. A total of 268 customers (1.3% of all accounts) had flow restriction devices installed due to excessive water use. “The momentum created by our customer base during the last three years of the drought has promoted lasting behavioral change, embracing the lifestyle of “Conservation is a California Way of Life,” stated David Pedersen, General Manager of LVMWD. “We ask that instead of falling back into old water usage habits, our customers continue to push forward with a focus on water use efficiency, even when we are experiencing rain and snow like we have recently. The next drought could be just around the corner.”
