PALMDALE – To comply with water restrictions now required by the state, the Palmdale Water District (PWD) may soon have to implement an emergency plan to conserve water, officials announced Wednesday.
The plan includes mandatory water conservation measures that will affect all customers and fines for customers who waste water, according to press release by the Palmdale Water District. Read it below:
NOTICE TO ALL PWD CUSTOMERS
On July 15, the State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) issued Mandatory Emergency Water Conservation Regulations that prohibit individuals from engaging in certain water use practices throughout the state of California. The SWRCB adopted emergency regulations requiring water suppliers to enact mandatory water conservation measures due to continued dry weather, the prolonged drought, low water supplies, and a lack of response to the Governor’s requested voluntary 20% cut back on water usage. These regulations will be effective beginning August 1 and will remain in effect for 270 days.
Palmdale Water District (District) has prepared plans for the drought conditions with increasing degrees of rationing. The District will consider action in the near future to comply with the action by SWRCB. The action will be to implement the Stage 1 Water Shortage Emergency Plan contained in the District’s 2010 Urban Water Management Plan. This is explained in Section 5 of the Urban Water Management Plan that can be found [here].
Please note the mandatory regulations will affect all District customers, and fines can be charged for the waste of water. Additionally, the District’s existing “Waste of Water Policy” remains in effect. The “Waster of Water Policy” can be seen on the District’s website [here].
PWD Stage 1 Mandatory Water Conservation Regulations:
- There shall be no hose washing of sidewalks, walkways, buildings, walls, patios, driveways, parking areas or other paved surfaces, or walls, except to eliminate conditions dangerous to public health or safety or when required as surface preparation for the application of architectural coating or painting.
- Washing of motor vehicles, trailers, boats and other types of equipment shall be done only with a hand-held nozzle for quick rinses, except that washing may be done with reclaimed wastewater or by a commercial car wash using recycled water.
- No water shall be used to clean, fill or maintain levels in decorative fountains, ponds, lakes or other similar aesthetic structures unless such water is part of a recycling system.
- No restaurant, hotel, café, cafeteria or other public place where food is sold, served or offered for sale, shall serve drinking water to any customer unless expressly requested and shall display a notice to that effect.
- All water users shall promptly repair all leaks from indoor and outdoor plumbing fixtures.
- No lawn, landscape, or other turf area shall be watered more often than three (3) days per week, no more often than every other day, nor during the hours between 10:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m.
Water days will be set as follows: addresses ending in an even number starting on Monday and addresses ending in an odd number starting on Tuesday.- No water users shall cause or allow the water to run off landscape areas into adjoining streets, sidewalks, or other paved areas due to incorrectly directed or maintained sprinklers or excessive watering. If cited, random actions of vandalism will be considered in any appeal.
- The owner and manager of every hotel, motel, inn, guest house, bed and breakfast facility, and short-term commercial lodging shall post a notice of such shortage and any necessary compliance measures.
- Commercial nurseries, golf courses, parks, school yards, and other public open space, and landscaped areas shall be prohibited from watering lawn, landscaping, and other turf areas more often than five days per week and between the hours of 6:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m., except that there shall be no restriction on water utilizing reclaimed water or where public use requires a modified and approved watering schedule.
Don’t Waste Water Hotline
The Palmdale Water District has an active number (661) 456-1099 for its customers to call when they see water being wasted due to: visible lawn over-watering practices, broken sprinkler heads or incorrectly directed sprinkler heads and broken pipes leading to street run off. The Hotline is consistent with the District’s “Waste of Water Policy” which helps prevent continued and unreasonable use of water. You can also call the District’s number (661) 947-4111, ext. 1001 or email water_conservation@palmdalewater.org.
pat says
I use to live in Lancaster but moved out of the area about 14 years ago when the housing bubble burst in the area. I now live in the midwest and could not be happier. Saw the hand writing on the wall and left.
William says
@pat
Many people write comments such as yours but they never specify which city or even which state they’ve moved to. “midwest”??? That really narrows it down.
Why is that? No one will find a ‘pat’ in Illinois that happens to be you.
However, one guy did mention his city and how wonderful it was in Minnesota or somewhere in that part of the country. I looked up the crime stats and the city he moved to had the highest crime states in that state.
Is that why you guys don’t specific where you moved to or are you afraid that thousands of us from the Antelope Valley will come and join you in paradise?
Ever notice that no one ever writes a comment here saying they moved and it turned out to be a mistake as the new wonderful place didn’t turn out as expected.
So, I take all these comments with a 10lb. bag of salt.
Lilly says
What about Sunday?
Keith says
What happened to cloud seeding…..Like the one that ended the drought in ’77..?
waterwastenot says
What about those of us who obey the cut backs and do what they can…
BUT have others in the neighborhood who lets their water run over the sidewalks and down the gutter every day….Is there a phone number we can call and report the waste of water?? (that will do some good).
If 1 person has to cut back then we all should, it’s only fair and the right thing to do.
bird says
If it’s yellow, let it mellow.
AV-Just say no says
We’re running out of water plain and simple. Exoscaping is the future and the future is today-get used to it. We don’t live in a place where you can have your lush green lawn all year long. It’s coming down to do you want to have water to drink or waste water to maintain a lawn in the middle of the desert. If you want a lush green lawn move to Seattle.
William says
California should not be flooding fields to grow rice to send to Japan while Japan sends us cars while Detroit went down the tubes.
Homeowners need to form a lobby to address the 80% of water used by agriculture while they have to flush twice to do the job. The rice growers have a lobby.
William says
California grows 80% of the world’s almonds and it takes 1 gallon of water to grow 1 almond. The farmers have cut back on growing vegetables to keep their almond growing during the drought.
So, think about that the next time to have to cut your shower short or flush twice to save water.
We’ve let textile and automobile industries get outsourced while subsidizing tobacco farmers and letting almond and rice growers in California use OUR water to grow crops for export.
What is wrong with this picture? We need to stop growing crops in California that use too much water and if they are only going to export most of them them. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.
waterless says
Agree, William. On a similar note (and I’ve seen this before), if we all start using less water the water bills increase because the water district can’t make enough money. Really stupid.
William says
The worst thing is yet to come.
When we’ve installed all the low flow everything, ripped out our lawns and conserve as much as possible, guess what?
They can raise the rates as high as they want because you won’t be able to conserve any more to save money.
That is never discussed is it?
Wouldn’t it be great if California didn’t grow any more and instead did all the conservation of water and energy and we could live confortably with the amount of water and energy we now have? What if we could work on employing all the people currently in the state instead of growing a larger population and never catching up with employing everyone. But no, the growth will continue and we’ll never, ever be out from under the burden of having to do more and more and never getting there because more growth keeps creating a greater need for more conservation. It’s worse than a dog chasing its own tail.
Same with electricity. After you replaced all your light bulbs with LED bulbs and bought Energy Star appliances and done everything availabe to save electicity, then they can raise the rates and you won’t be able to conserve anymore to save money.
How come California doesn’t put a moratorium on new home building if water and energy are getting less readily available.
Why is that? Why should the quality of life be cut back on current residents so that the building industry can keep building and building regardless of how scare the water is and expensive for electricity to be produced?
It’s like loading up a boat to make more money from ticket sales until the boat capsizes.
Now, lets say that Palmdale or Lancaster decides to stop issuing building permits for new homes, if that’s even legally possible. Well, the developers will simply build next door in the other city. You can’t win.
Where is it written that California has to keep building homes till every available piece of land is developed?
It’s stupid.
It’s madness.
Who wants to live in a high density city or state like Hong Kong? One of the appeals of Caliornia is that it isn’t like those high density regions like back east. If it becomes that way, it won’t be attractive or livable any longer.
Los Angeles keeps thinking that it needs to grow more and that will solve problems. If that were so, Los Angeles wouldn’t have any problems by now, would it?
Jason says
California produces most of the food in America so why would you as a Californian be against farmers and workers or people on food stamps!!! It builds our state economy! We should be lobbying for more federal food stamp money so people form other states buy California food. Duhhhh
There’s plenty of water it comes down to management of the resource which we haven’t done since Gov. Jerry Browns father its a lack of leadership. And the truth the water table is up in AV!
Jo says
Wow! so if your lawn dies then the city of Palmdale can cite you for a dead lawn. Who wins here, looks like Palmdale city code officers will be busy.
Jo says
It says you CANNOT water between 10-4…Anyway, this is stupid. How about families that do not use dishwashers and washing machines? We wash dishes by hand and go to the laundromat…We buy bottled water for drinking and cooking ( the tap water tastes disgusting …) So if I want to water my little 4×4 garden patch I think I should be able to. I have cut way back on our water use.
MYOB says
The reason for the between 10-4pm rule is because that’s the hottest part of the day and most the water is wasted through evaporation.
Alan Mudge says
Look around my neighborhood and most people don’t water their lawns (dirt) at all.
William says
I was listening to a discussion on our drought on the teevee machine re: Gov. Brown’s request that Californians cut back but we went up 1%.
What didn’t get said, was that we’ve been doing the low-flow shower heads and faucets and new toilets and other things for over a decade.
So, it’s harder and harder to conserve when you’ve already conserved compated to 10 years ago.
But, then it got interesting. Agriculture uses 85% of the water in California and it takes A GALLON OF WATER TO GROW ONE (1) ALMOND. Unbelievable.
I’ll give up almonds for better flushing toilets.
It seems that the emphasis is put on homeowners to conserve when maybe we should look at not growing almonds or rice in California as well.
Or, how about a moratorium on new home building? They won’t even go near that.
Anyway, I’m giving up asparagus in case we have to ‘recycle’ like the astronauts do.
Eric says
“Agriculture uses 85% of the water in California” coupled with the fact that we produce something like about 70% of produce in the US. Makes you wonder why all these other states are acting like the drought is a problem only for California.
My lawn is dead. At this point, I won’t even reinvest in it, its getting turfed.
William says
We need to take a look at argricultural use of water and see if growing certain things should be reduced or cut out altogether.
I rccall reading about California growing rice back in the 80s and 90s. I don’t know if we still do. But, the rice was being shipped to Japan, of all places.
Meanwhile, Japan was shipping us Toyotas and Nissans while Detroil was going down the tubes.
What is wrong with this picture?
mattzweck says
Everybody better start getting large drums of containers full of water fast than keep it safe. and get large water bottles.
Wait... says
So they are trying to dictate that homeowners can only water their private property no more than 3 days a week between the hours of 10am-4pm…but any public land (paid by the same property owners from their personal taxes) can water up to 5 days a week between the hours of 6 am-6pm…Does anyone see a problem with this hypocrisy!?
Read it correct says
The hours listed are when we are restricted to watering not when we’re allowed to. The parks should be able to water more often if we want a place for our kids to be able to run and play in grass.
The Truth says
Use to be .. Utility companies would stick it to you,..then wait a few years, before trying to rob you again. Now they just stick it to you, then they just get right back in line.
The “waiting period” does not seem to be in effect any more.
Ken says
You better start stocking up on your water supply if you haven’t already. The drought is here Ladies and Gentlemen. It’s going to get even HOTTER next week. I feel your frustration Kizzy.
Bam! says
Scared me! No one is gunna stop me from washing my pick’em up truck!
ed says
lol, I like your comment… they are having a hard time providing a service, but they want to charge more money for something they can’t provide…. ooook.
William says
‘pick’em up truck’??? Is that for hitchhikers?
Are you then gonna come back next month and complain about yer bill?
blanca says
Water was given to us from our lovely EARTH! THE GOVERNMENT SHOULDN’T HAVE CONTROL OVER IT. ALTHOUGH IT SHOULD BE USED WISELY.
Kizzy says
So what’s next.. Goverment control….
I guess this was a country of freedom ..
William says
@Kizzy
We are in a serious drought. What is the matter with you?
You want freedom, Kizzy? Find your own water and quit the Palmdale Water District or whatever district you get your water from.
Then, you can have all your ‘freedumb’, if you like.
Joe says
Government Control of… Your Government provided water? Yes.