ANAHEIM : Water Savings Goal May Be Lowered

Because of recent heavy rains, the Public Utilities Department will ask the City Council today to lower the voluntary water conservation goal for residents and businesses from 15% to 10%.

Under the proposal, residents and businesses would also no longer be fined for watering lawns between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m., washing down sidewalks or operating decorative fountains, although such actions will still be discouraged.

Since the water conservation program was implemented last year, water usage has dropped by 14.5% in the city, according to the department.

“We feel it is appropriate with the rains we have had to go to a strictly voluntary program,” said Darrell L. Ament, the department’s assistant general manager.

Ament said, however, that despite the improving water picture, homes and businesses will have to reduce their water usage by 10% in the next 20 years if Anaheim’s supply is to keep up with its increasing population. The city gets 70% of its water from local wells and 30% from the Metropolitan Water District, which supplies water to most of Southern California.

To help meet that goal, the city will distribute low-volume shower heads, offer rebates to those who install low-flush toilets and ask residents to plant drought-tolerant grass and shrubbery.

“It is cheaper for us to help our customers reduce their usage than to have to drill new wells or buy the water from the MWD,” Ament said.

The council meeting begins at 5 p.m. at City Hall, 200 S. Anaheim Blvd.