Fountain Valley Earns Top Water Conservation Spot In Orange County
FOUNTAIN VALLEY (CBSLA.com) — While California residents continue the struggle of trying to conserve water through the drought, one local community raised the bar for water management.
While Fountain Valley's name is indicative of a place where water runs freely and abundantly, the fountains are dry and the grass is browning, as the city sets itself apart in its efforts to save water.
"We saved a lot of water, and we not only met our goal for the month of June, but we exceeded our goal," Fountain Valley Public Works director Mark Lewis claimed.
In fact, Fountain Valley was named the top water saver out of any city in Orange County in May, and by the time the results of June's efforts are made public, the city hopes to call itself home to some of the most frugal water users in the state.
The city mandate in June was 20 percent savings, but residents' efforts resulted in an increase to 25 percent.
"What we've done, is we've actually cut down our watering to five minutes per station, but actually this one here, since the wind will blow the water onto the sidewalk, we've limited this to actually two minutes," resident Dana Skaggs said.
State officials claim that residential water usage for May shows Fountain Valley consuming 55 gallons of water per household per day, compared to Villa Park, which uses 266 gallons of water per household each day.
Villa Park remains one of the biggest residential water users in Orange County.
City leaders in Fountain Valley, despite being thrilled over the results of their conservation efforts, warn residents that, despite the successful numbers thus far, now is no time to revert to heavy water usage.
