Pasadena

Plan to Cut Water Use OKd

Officially noting that the city is in its fourth year of drought, the Board of Directors voted Tuesday to implement voluntary restraints on water use, including sending drought-buster field crews into city neighborhoods to identify water-wasters.

If that gets no response, board members indicated, they are prepared to impose rationing.

Under the program, field workers will encourage apartment dwellers to install high-efficiency shower heads, faucet aerators and toilet dams. The city is also working to restore four contaminated wells in the Arroyo Seco to service by installing a treatment plant. The Metropolitan Water District, which supplies 60% of Pasadena’s water, has urged the city to reduce water consumption by 10%.

Director Rick Cole suggested that the city’s conservation efforts might be more effective if those who use a large amount of water were billed at a higher rate. “We should make people pay for the water they waste,” he said. The voluntary restraints, he said, are “a thimbleful of solution to a bucketful of problems.”