Use of Water and Electricity Sets Records

Still reeling from the sweltering heat of the weekend, Southern Californians ran to their air conditioners, back-yard hoses and swimming pools in droves Tuesday and Wednesday, setting records for water and electricity use.

The Metropolitan Water District, which sells water wholesale to 27 agencies in Orange, Los Angeles, San Diego, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura counties, reported selling a record 2.62 billion gallons of water Wednesday.

That figure represents the amount of water that member agencies had to buy from the district to beef up local water supplies after the record-breaking heat wave last weekend, according to Jay Malinowski, a spokesman for the district. He estimated that water use in the district reached a record 5.22 billion gallons, including water that local agencies pumped out of their own wells and reservoirs before turning to the larger agency.

Southern California Edison reported an all-time record for electricity use in Southern California on Tuesday, when the downtown Los Angeles temperature reached 92. Demand peaked at 15,987 megawatts at 4 p.m., breaking the previous record of 15,606 megawatts set July 22.

David Barron, a spokesman for the utility, said electricity demand dropped “a long way down” Wednesday in the Southland, peaking at 14,496 megawatts on a day when the high was 85. Except for two major heat spells, he said, the summer has generally been temperate and electricity use has been manageable.

Electricity use may taper off, but water demand is expected to stay at near-record levels for the rest of the week. It is not just the heat, Malinowski said. Water demand was also created by industries gearing back up from a long weekend; homeowners returning from Labor Day travels to water their lawns, and students running sinks, showers and water fountains as another school year begins.

Wednesday was the second record-setting day in a row for the 14.5 million people in the Metropolitan Water District’s service area.

The water district sells so much water that it doesn’t measure it in gallons. Wednesday’s record sale of 2.62 billion gallons was recorded as 8,034 acre-feet, Malinowski said. On an average summer day, the district sells member agencies 7,200 acre-feet of water, or 2.35 billion gallons.

That is a lot of water. An acre-foot is 326,000 gallons--enough water to last a typical family two years.

Malinowski said that a few days of high water use, even during a drought, “does not become a serious problem” as long as conservation efforts continue. The water district has been asking consumers to reduce water use by 10% since June, he said. So far, conservation efforts have produced a 5% to 8% savings.

Water demand in the city of Los Angeles reached 793 million gallons Tuesday--not a record, but well above the 754-million-gallon average for the month, according to Ed Freudenberg, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power. He said water use in the city is not as strong as it was last year, when demand frequently exceeded 800 million gallons per day.

Southern Californians should not need as much power and water over the next few days. Temperatures are predicted to range between the upper 60s and low 70s near the coast and in the 80s in the Los Angeles basin for the next three to five days. Riverside, San Bernardino and the inland valleys will see temperatures in the 90s.