Tapping into concern over water
Re “Water wasters may soon see the specter of ‘drought busters,’ ” Nov. 13
L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s deployment of drought busters to find and warn water wasters will not be effective by itself. A complex mix of conservation measures led by former Mayor Tom Bradley’s water-pricing reform, with some help from the preaching of drought busters, drove the large water savings of the early 1990s touted by the current mayor.
The L.A. Department of Water and Power should press to achieve sensible conservation in news releases, advertisements and bill inserts that explain the two-tiered price system and the higher summer rates so that customers will know that hosing driveways and overwatering plants are expensive.
Conservation pays, but not if no one knows the price of water, the higher price of a second tier of consumption and even higher summer prices.
David Campbell
Los Angeles
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The DWP sells water to its customers, but the catch is that customers can use the water only for certain things because the mayor thinks they’re wasting water? If that’s the case, then L.A. residents should have a say in the way the mayor spends his salary.
Raul Perez
Chino
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