Hawthorne Drafts Water Conservation Plan

Hawthorne city officials have approved a draft of an emergency water conservation plan that would establish mandatory phases for cutting back on water consumption in the event of serious shortages and set up penalties for non-compliance.

The plan was drafted at the request of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, which supplies most of the city’s water needs and is asking all of its member cities to adopt conservation measures. An ordinance to make the plan law will come before the City Council next week. If adopted, the plan would go into effect 30 days later.

“This is the fourth year of the drought and the shortage is becoming a serious concern,” said Harry Reeves, Hawthorne’s chief of special services. “All cities are being encouraged by providers of water to implement these plans or have them in place so that at the point that extreme emergency measures are called for, they’ll have something on the books. It’s planning ahead.”

The council must hold a public hearing before voting to enact any phase of the plan. Reeves said the city’s water department would recommend when each phase should be implemented, based on requests from the Metropolitan Water District.

Last month, the district asked for voluntary cutbacks of 10% between June and September, the four months during which people use half the water they will use all year. If people don’t cut back on their water use voluntarily by late July, the district will consider recommending that cities implement mandatory measures, spokesman Bob Gompersz said.

The Hawthorne City Council adopted a voluntary water conservation program in August, 1988, in which residents were encouraged to fix water leaks, stop hosing their walkways and driveways, stop filling decorative fountains with water, and avoid watering their lawns between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. Restaurants also were asked to stop serving drinking water except at the request of customers.

Those voluntary measures would become mandatory, however, under the first phase of Hawthorne’s emergency water plan.

Subsequent phases of the plan require residents and businesses to reduce their water consumption in increments of 5%, up to a total of 20%. The plan’s fifth phase could be enacted if drought conditions persist another year.

Schools, hospitals, convalescent homes and hotels would not be required to conserve water until the fourth phase of the plan went into effect. At that stage, when most businesses and residents would be required to cut back on their water usage by 15%, they would be required to cut back by 5%.

Only residents who exceed consumption levels established for each phase of the plan will be subject to cutback requirements. A household that consumed only a small amount of water, for instance, would not be required to cut back.