Beat Is Tough When the Job Is ‘Water Cop’ for a Dry Santa Monica

LaMont Carr cruised slowly past the green, neat lawns north of Montana Avenue until he spied the telltale sign of a possible crime in progress.

He stopped, inspected the evidence and confirmed his suspicion:

The leaking valve of an outdoor sprinkler was sending a steady stream of water down the street--at an hour when watering is prohibited under Santa Monica’s emergency water-conservation law.

“You see a crime being committed--water being wasted--then we want to know about it,” said Carr, the city’s newly appointed water cop.

A former campus police officer, former college basketball star and holder of a law degree, Carr is the key person in charge of enforcing the city’s new set of water-conservation measures.

One of Many

As drought grips the nation, Santa Monica has joined Los Angeles, San Francisco and at least eight other cities across California in enacting laws designed to make residents and businesses reduce their water use.

For the first time in a decade, Santa Monica officials have a drought they consider serious enough to declare a water emergency. Measures include restrictions on when people can water their lawns and a ban on hosing down driveways and sidewalks. Water-saving devices for commodes and showers will also be distributed for voluntary use.

But as Carr, 35, learned quickly, there can be some special obstacles to enforcing the new law in a city where about 80% of the residents are renters.

Middle of Dispute

On one of his first calls, Carr, whose official title is water conservation inspector, found himself caught in a dispute between a landlord and tenant.

The tenant complained that her faucet had been leaking for five months and that the landlord refused to spend the money to repair it. The leak was so bad that it would fill a 5-gallon drum in 15 minutes, she said. But the landlord contended that the tenant had tampered with the faucet to make it leak. Finally, he was given a week to repair it or face a surcharge, Carr said.

Carr says such confrontations don’t make his job any easier. But he hopes to persuade people that water conservation is in everyone’s best interest.

“We are not trying to be Big Brother,” he said. “We are just trying to explain that California and many other states are experiencing a drought, and the city is trying to take an active part in helping. We are only asking people to be reasonable.”

Spreading the Word

For now, Carr is trying to get the word out about the new law and what water-conservation measures must be taken. He is spending much of his time driving around and issuing warnings and advice when he sees water being wasted. Although he originally planned to issue citations to abusers, he has been instructed to wait until more people are familiar with the law.

Under the emergency ordinance, passed unanimously by the City Council on June 14, residents can water their lawns only every other day and not between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m., hours when evaporation is fastest. People with odd-numbered addresses water on odd-numbered days; people with even-numbered addresses water on even days. No excessive watering or runoff is allowed.

Underground drip irrigation systems are exempt if owners obtain approval from the city’s General Services Division.

Hosing down sidewalks, driveways and patios is prohibited, and water cannot be used for decorative fountains unless the fountain has a recycling system or uses sea water. Swimming pools can only be filled once, and may be refilled only once after being emptied for repairs.

Residents can wash their cars only if they use a hand-held bucket or a hose with a shut-off nozzle. Commercial carwashes are exempt because they efficiently use only half as much water as individuals do to clean their autos, officials said.

Drinking water will not be served at restaurants unless patrons request it.

After one warning notice, violators may be fined a surcharge of $20 or 20% of the water bill, whichever is greater.

The city has also set up a water-conservation hot line, a special telephone number people can call to complain or ask questions. In his first couple of days on the job, Carr received about 20 calls.

On a sunny morning last week during a routine drive in the northern part of the city, Carr stopped to inform Johan and Ingeborg Maters that the leaking valve on a sprinkler outside their condominium complex had to be fixed.

They had been on a trip and had noticed the leak shortly before Carr arrived, they said. They promised to have it repaired immediately, and so it was within two days, Carr said.

He then encountered a new problem. Talking to several gardeners, he found that many commute long distances to Santa Monica, and are only on the job during the hours that watering is banned.

“It’s a Catch-22 for them,” he said. “Gardeners have to work, too.”

So he promised to see whether part of the law should be changed or relaxed.

Enforcement Difficult

Carr acknowledges that the law will be difficult to enforce in many ways. Technically, he must catch someone in the act of wasting water before he can issue a citation, so he hopes to foster a “neighborhood watch” where people will report chronic violations. And some people warn that the present fine may not be enough of a deterrent.

“The only way you get to people is through their pocketbook,” City Councilman Herb Katz said.

“For the wealthy, it is a drop in the bucket,” he said of the current fine. “You have to go higher.”

As part of a program to get residents to voluntarily reduce their water consumption by 10%, the city, working with neighborhood groups and the Boy Scouts, will also go door-to-door to distribute 23,500 free conservation kits to Santa Monica households. Officials estimate only about half the city’s households will be reached. Kits will also be available at City Hall and some park facilities.

The kits include a device that goes in toilet tanks to reduce the amount of water used, tablets that color the water and indicate whether the toilet is leaking, an application to request a low-flow shower head, and a lawn-watering guide.

Usage Notice

On their monthly water bills, Santa Monica residents and businesses will find a computerized notice telling them how much their water consumption has gone up or down. The names of consumers who are using more water now than they did last year will be culled out automatically and put on a special list.

And if their water use goes up significantly, they’ll receive a visit from the water cop.

“Time will tell, but I think it’ll discourage most people from using water in an exaggerated way,” said Stanley Scholl, who as director of General Services oversees the program.

The city has drained its four decorative water fountains, one of which had been leaking, Scholl said. Water conservation aside, the fountains had also posed a problem because people would throw detergent in them to watch bubbles shoot up in the streams of water.

In addition to enforcement problems, some concern was voiced over whether the ordinance would lead to neighbors squealing on one another every time they saw water running down a gutter.

“If they’re really abusing it, then OK. But my objection is I just don’t want neighbors turning in neighbors for minor things,” Katz said. “I don’t want a spite war.”

The Santa Monica ordinance is almost identical to the Los Angeles version. In Los Angeles, however, a companion sewer ordinance requires residents to reduce the flow of waste water by 10% over the next five years and to install water-saving devices in bathrooms by Oct. 13.

Scholl said that if the drought worsens, Santa Monica may make a 10% cut in water use mandatory.

He said the city will spend a total of $134,375 on the water-saving kits, advertising to promote the new law and other elements of the program. That budget includes a $6,500 salary for Carr, hired by the city for three months. The city consumes 16.5 million gallons of water a day, with St. Johns Hospital and Santa Monica Place mall listed as the top two consumers.

Scholl said he expects the emergency ordinance to be in effect until November; it can be revoked by the City Council if weather improves.

Meanwhile, everyone agrees it will be some time before any real water-savings can be detected.

Conservation “won’t occur till the middle of summer, when people wake up to the problems,” Katz said. “Right now, it’s cool, you don’t have to water much. Until they’re really pushed to the wall, most people won’t do much.”