Preliminary Results Positive for Tapping Wells Again : Water: Stung by rate increases and penalties for excessive consumption, the city looks to another source besides the MWD.

Beverly Hills has received some encouraging news about the feasibility of tapping into ground water to help supply the city’s needs, much as it did in the 1920s.

If the aquifer passes additional tests, it may ultimately supplement the water the city now must buy exclusively from the regional wholesaler, the Metropolitan Water District.

A preliminary test shows that “hydro-geologic conditions are favorable for local water production and that a minimum of four wells spaced at 1,500-foot intervals would provide optimal supply,” said Dan Webster, the city’s director of public works in a report last week to the City Council.

In April, the council had commissioned a Newport Beach engineering firm to look into the possibility of drawing on local ground water.

Stung by stiff rate increases and penalties levied against Beverly Hills last year for excessive consumption, the city has been looking for ways to control its water costs and reduce its dependence on the MWD.

The $140,000 study by Boyle Engineering Corp. was commissioned to determine the quality of local ground water and the cost of tapping into it and treating it.

The company performed water sample tests at four well sites in Beverly Gardens, Webster said. Two sites were tested near Linden Drive and Wilshire Boulevard and two sites were tapped at Doheny Drive and Santa Monica Boulevard.

The water samples fell within the range allowed for odor, alkalinity, acidity, temperature and clarity, Webster said. The samples will be further tested by a certified laboratory.

The next step will be to determine how much water treatment is required and what it will cost, Webster said. That information should be available by August.

The firm and city staff are also talking with representatives from other Westside cities to look at the possibility of using reclaimed water on a regional basis.

Half of the cost of the consultant’s study will be paid for by the MWD. In a bittersweet moment, City Manager Mark Scott noted that MWD’s $70,000 contribution nearly recovers the $85,000 the city paid the agency last year in penalties during the drought.

The city was fined when it failed to meet MWD’s requirement that all of its members reduce their water consumption by 20%. In turn, the city passed the costs along to residents, imposing severe penalties on residents whose consumption exceeded more than 80% of the 1989 base-level.

If the city is successful in tapping into its ground water supply, it will not be the first time. In the early ‘20s, the city obtained its water from more than a dozen municipally owned wells. The number swelled to 23 when the city purchased the Sherman Water Co. and its 11 wells, which supplied water to parts of Beverly Hills and to what is now West Hollywood.

As the city’s population grew and well-water quality and productivity decreased, the city turned to the regional Metropolitan Water District for more of its water supply. The number of wells dwindled from 14 in 1966 to 11 in 1970, and by 1975, the city voted to abandon its wells and purchase all of its water from the MWD.