Pasadena Declares Temporary Water Shortage Emergency
PASADENA (CBSLA.com) — Residents and businesses in the foothill communities of Pasadena, La Cañada Flintridge, La Crescenta and Altadena were being asked Wednesday to reduce their water consumption while a major water pipeline is taken out of service.
KNX 1070's Claudia Peschiutta reports as many as 250,000 consumers could be affected by the eight-day shutdown scheduled to take effect on Thursday.
Residents asked to reduce water use during shutdown
The Pasadena City Council on Monday declared the city will face a Level 4 Water Shortage Emergency during the temporary, eight-day shutdown of a major regional water pipeline from Feb. 21 - 28.
The measure approved by the Council authorizes the city to enforce a total ban on outdoor watering - with very few exceptions - while the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD) takes its upper feeder pipeline offline to upgrade the distribution system, 40 percent of which is over 60 years old.
Officials from the MWD joined with Pasadena Water and Power, Foothill Municipal Water District and local retail water agencies to ask residents to refrain from outdoor watering and to reduce daily use by at least 30 percent to help preserve local supplies.
Some measures residents can take include no outdoor watering, hand-washing vehicles, filling swimming pools or spas, or hosing down driveways and sidewalks. Other water-saving measures include running only full loads in washing machines and dishwashers, not leaving the tap running when washing dishes, keeping showers to a maximum of 5 minutes and not leaving the water running while brushing your teeth or shaving.
Jim Green, the District's manager of water operations, said about half of the water that flows into the affected region comes from a MWD pipeline.
"This is a relatively large project," Green said. "It's very important and critical that the residents of those communities conserve water...so that supplies can stretch and last for the entire eight days."
In preparation for the shutdown, the Pasadena City Council declared a Level 4 water shortage during the outage.
Visit the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California's website for more information.
