How does L.A. use its water?
For all the discussion of how the city, parks and golf courses guzzle water, the lion’s share of L.A.’s supply is sucked up by residential customers, according to data from the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. Residents have consumed more than 57% of DWP water each year since 1969, and leaks such as the one on Sunset Boulevard last summer amounted to only 4% of the water used in L.A. on an average day, officials said. Historic data also show that conservation plans do work — each person was using an average of 189 gallons a day in 1969 for residential and commercial purposes. Today, the average is 131 gallons per person.
1978-'79:
Multi-family
homes began
to use more
water.
1991-'92:
Drought
prompted
conservation.
1977-'78:
Drought
prompted
conservation.
Residential homes
Includes beer makers,
refineries, factories and
other manufacturing
Water lost from pipe
leaks, firefighting,
evaporation, theft and
other unaccounted losses
Water used by city,
Recreation and Park
facilities and L.A.
Unified School District
Commercial
and government
use of water
has remained
relatively
constant.
1970-'71
1980-'81
1990-'91
2000-'01
2010-'11
50 billion
50 billion
50 billion
1969-'70
2013-'14
Governmental
1971-'72 peak: 8%
1988-'89 peak: 5%
1983-'84 peak: 11%
Non-revenue
Industrial
0
50
100
150
200
Fiscal year
50 billion
Total usage
100 billion
1971-'72
peak: 48%
1997-'98 peak: 33%
1976-'77 peak: 24%
Commercial
Multi-family
Single-family
How much water each group used from city's overall total
Governmental
Non-revenue
Industrial
Commercial
191.1
228.3
195.1
(In billions of gallons)
Multi-family residential
Single-family residential
Water usage since 1969 by customer type
(6)
(7.9)
(13)
17,964
24,375
40,157
(32.1)
(54)
(67.5 billion gallons)
98,530
165,654
207,021 acre-feet
Industrial
Commercial
Non-revenue
Multi-family
Governmental
Single-family
(1 af is about 326,000 gallons)
= 1,000 af
Average total:
acre-feet of water or
billion gallons
180.5
553,876
Average water demand between July 1, 2009 and June 30, 2014
Lorena Elebee / @latimesgraphics
Sources: Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, U.S. Census Bureau, Times reporting
Graphics reporting by Rosanna Xia
Any condo or apartment
complex
Businesses such as stores,
restaurants, spas and malls
1980s: L.A. grew
more than half a
million, increasing
the amount of
water consumed.
1990s: Many high-
flow water fixtures,
such as toilets and
shower-heads, were
updated with low-
flow water ones.
2014: Water usage
increased in the
past three years,
but is less than it
was in 1969, even
with 1 million
more people today.
Scaled back
beginning in
2007. Lawn-
watering
was limited.
Mayor Eric
Garcetti has
directed L.A. to
reduce its water
use 20% by
2017.
Single-family
homes used
47% of all water
consumed in
1969-'70, while
multi-family
homes used
only 16%.
By 2014, single-
family homes
were using 38%
of all water
consumed, and
multi-family
homes used
28%.
