Culver City Observer -

The West Basin Municipal Water District (West Basin) is calling on residents and businesses in the service area to temporarily suspend outdoor watering for a fifteen-day period beginning Sept. 6 to Sept. 20 due to the emergency repair of a major Metropolitan Water District pipeline that delivers imported water to West Basin. Given the region’s limited water supplies, extreme drought conditions and the general need to achieve greater water savings, West Basin supports Metropolitan’s call for no outdoor watering during the shutdown of a critical pipeline for urgent repairs. Read full Metropolitan press release or visit mwdh2o.com/shutdown.

West Basin General Manager Gregory Reed stated, “This is our uniform message across our service area – we are asking that everyone conserve water outdoors to the maximum extent possible during the repair of this critical infrastructure. This will allow our region to save and protect our diminishing Colorado River supply during this repair period, and as we also strive to reach our ongoing conservation goals.”

Currently, West Basin’s Water Shortage Contingency Plan is at a Shortage Level Three, which calls on District retail water suppliers, and their respective communities, to achieve a 30% reduction in water usage. According to recent data submitted to the State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) by retail water suppliers, the West Basin

service area has achieved a cumulative 3% decrease in water use over the previous 12 months compared to 2020 water use levels.

West Basin Board President Donald L. Dear encouraged the entire service area to continue its water saving actions, stating “We thank you for hearing our calls to save water during this historic drought. We are noticing positive change. Now, especially during this emergency repair period, we are asking everyone to keep up your savings

efforts.”

For any questions about current local permitted watering days and times, individuals should reach out directly to their retailer. To identify your local water retailer, website visitors can enter an address to find water retailer information. To view local outdoor water restrictions in the service area, visit West Basin’s listing of retailer watering schedules.

West Basin also reminds its recycled water customers that recycled water use is not subject to the temporary suspension of outdoor watering or the ongoing potable water conservation restrictions. Its exemption is a major benefit of recycled water, which helps the entire region save drinking water for drinking, especially during a major

drought and in urgent circumstances such as this emergency infrastructure repair. Collectively, West Basin and its recycled water customers have saved nearly 250 billion gallons of water.

To learn more about West Basin’s water saving programs that benefit local communities, the Southern California region and our state, visit http://www.westbasin.org/drought and http://www.westbasin.org/conservation and

http://www.westbasin.org/recycledwater.