Residents and businesses in Los Angeles County foothill communities and the San Gabriel, Walnut and Pomona valleys are being called upon to voluntarily reduce their water use beginning Saturday, Dec. 16, while a major regional water treatment plant undergoes upgrades during a five-day shutdown.

The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California joined local water agencies to make the precautionary water-saving request as Metropolitan prepares for the planned shutdown of its F.E. Weymouth Water Treatment Plant located in La Verne.  The Weymouth plant—one of five such treatment facilities within Metropolitan’s distribution system—is a significant source of drinking water for Los Angeles and Orange counties.

The shutdown, the first in 20 years at the Weymouth plant, will affect imported supplies delivered to the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, the cities of San Marino and Pasadena; Foothill Municipal Water District, Upper San Gabriel Valley Municipal Water District and Three Valleys Municipal Water District.

Debra C. Man, Metropolitan’s chief operating officer, said the Weymouth plant upgrades are part of a capital program to ensure safe drinking water quality over the long-term future.

“Although most of the local agencies in the Weymouth plant’s service area, such as LADWP, will have groundwater, reservoir supplies and other sources to meet retail demands during the shutdown, some pockets will need to institute mandatory restrictions,” Man said.

“As a precaution, we’re asking consumers in the region to voluntarily conserve water whenever and wherever possible during these five days,” she said.

Consumers—particularly in the foothill communities of Altadena, La Cañada-Flintridge and La Crescenta as well as the communities of Industry, West Covina, Glendora, Walnut, Rowland Heights, Diamond Bar and San Dimas—are requested to contact their local water supplier to determine water-use restrictions for their area.

“The Weymouth plant shutdown will allow us to prepare for upcoming efforts to improve the plant’s water quality processes and help decrease the need for shutdowns during future construction,” Man said.

“Maintaining and improving our ability to store, process and deliver drinking water throughout our Southern California service area requires periodic curtailments in deliveries while the work is being done,” she added.
Metropolitan routinely schedules shutdowns of its facilities in winter months, when temperatures usually are cooler and demands are lower, to complete inspections and perform maintenance and upgrades with the least impact on consumers.

“Voluntary water conservation by consumers, combined with activation of system interconnections between water agencies, will offer added safeguards to help ensure that residents and businesses have adequate water during the shutdown,” said Richard Hansen, Three Valley Municipal Water District general manager.

Hansen, however, cautioned that the cooperating agencies stand prepared to intensify the conservation request in the unanticipated event that locally stored supplies dwindle during the outage.  Residents who want to know more about how the shutdown will affect them should contact their local water provider directly.

The call for water-use efficiency is consistent with Metropolitan’s ongoing region-wide public outreach campaign that encourages reductions in outdoor water use through more efficient irrigation and use of California Friendly® plants in landscapes.

If it hasn’t been done, now is the time for residents and businesses to reduce sprinkler times.  Water conserved now can be stored for later use.  For helpful tips on how to be more water efficient, go to “www.bewaterwise.com.”

The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California is a cooperative of 26 cities and water agencies serving 18 million people in six counties. The district imports water from the Colorado River and Northern California to supplement local supplies, and helps its members to develop increased water conservation, recycling, storage, and other resource-management programs.