DWP Wins Praise for Valley Water Reimbursement Plan

City officials praised Monday a controversial decision by the Department of Water and Power to reimburse San Fernando Valley customers for bottled water they had purchased because faucets were contaminated with silt, sand and algae.

DWP commissioners hailed the department’s unprecedented offer to repay Valley customers as “innovative.” They denied allegations that DWP had discriminated against residents of South Los Angeles who had complained that their taps had spewed midge fly larvae during the summer.

No such compensation offer was made to South Los Angeles residents.

On Saturday, Councilman Robert Farrell and a spokesman for Councilman Gilbert Lindsay criticized the bottled water ruling as discriminatory. Lindsay and Farrell represent portions of South Los Angeles.

While the commissioners called the discrimination charges false, they ordered the department to develop a written policy on compensation within two weeks.

“So there will be no mistaking the policy--be it intentional or unintentional,” said Michael J. Gage, the board president.

The problems in the Valley began after DWP workers draining a reservoir in Granada Hills last month accidentally released sediment into pipes supplying water to about 300,000 homes from Reseda to Sherman Oaks. Granada Hills, Van Nuys and North Hollywood were also affected.

DWP officials said that the department logged more than 500 calls about the impurities. Gage said the department recorded about 40 complaints about the midge fly larvae.

“A much greater population impact helped serve as the trigger to . . . make a public announcement,” said Gage. “The allegations (of discrimination) are nonsense. The midge fly problem is not just in South-Central. It was also reported in the Valley. The midge fly has been with us for the last 80 years. Every year.”

Gage acknowledged that complaints about the midge fly were about four times the annual average, but that “it was just something that happens every year. When you’re used to dealing with something, there’s a tendency to deal with it the same way year after year.”

After several calls about the midge fly contamination were reported, the department temporarily closed the Silver Lake Reservoir that serves South Los Angeles. The Rowena Reservoir in Los Feliz was shut twice this summer because of an infestation of midge fly larvae.