Glendale water users meeting city’s conservation mandate, report states

Glendale residents once again met the city’s monthly water conservation goal in October, consuming almost a quarter less water than the same period two years ago, utility officials said.

Glendale Water & Power customers used 24.5% less than they did in October 2013, according to a presentation given during a meeting of the Glendale Water & Power Commission on Monday.

The reduction continues a conservation trend since June in response to Gov. Jerry Brown’s mandate for all California cities to cumulatively cut consumption by 20% by next February in the wake of an ongoing state drought.

Glendale’s monthly goal has been 20%, but it’s been surpassed every month since it went into effect.

Michael De Ghetto, the utility’s assistant general manager, said he commended residents for cutting water use during the hot summer months when consumption is at its highest.

November statistics have yet to be released, but De Ghetto said he expects the conservation percentage will drop to about 15% — not because people aren’t saving as much, but because less water is usually used during the colder winter months.

In order to keep conservation around the 20% mark, De Ghetto is asking utility customers to take a few extra steps to save even more water.

For example, the city is in the third phase of a conservation plan, restricting lawn watering to just two days a week. But that could be more than enough in December with El Nino storms expected soon, De Ghetto said.

“Everyone did a great job in the summer getting to two days a week. Now maybe it needs to be less than that,” he said.

De Ghetto added that people shouldn’t water their lawns within 48 hours after a rainfall.

And as people leave town for the holidays, they should also be checking their watering timers to ensure sprinklers are only turned on once a week if they’d like, he said.

Stephen Zurn, the utility’s general manager, said there will likely be a mail and social-media campaign sharing the additional water-saving tips with residents.

“Through education, we can get people to adjust their timers,” Zurn said in a phone interview.

Despite meeting the October goal, there are residents who are watering lawns more than they’re allowed to and are being cited for it.

De Ghetto said pictures are taken of residential lawns with the sprinklers turned on beyond the two-day allowance, and the photos are being presented to homeowners.

In the past month, 216 residents received a first warning, 46 people got a second watering and 25 were issued a third and final warning, De Ghetto said.

Eight $100 citations ended up being issued, he said.

“As far as that goes, all but one person as far as we can tell got the message,” De Ghetto said.