Beverly Hills using a lot of water in midst of drought

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (KABC) -- As Californians are being asked to let their lawns go brown and take shorter showers, a new report from the State Water Resources Control Board released Tuesday shows big disparities in water habits.

Residents in the state's three largest cities, Los Angeles, San Diego and San Jose, are using between 82 and 96 gallons a day. Meanwhile, those in East L.A. use just 48 gallons per day, the lowest in the Southland.

"It does surprise me but at the same time it makes sense because most of the households around here, most of the people, most of the time, are not home so that's one of the reasons, and another reason is it's a financial situation that people save water for because it's expensive," said Anthony Galindo of East L.A.

One area using a lot of water per-capita is Beverly Hills, where the average person uses 286 gallons of water per day.

"Maybe they should consider to reduce a little bit because, obviously, we don't have enough water so they should care," said Jasmin Kawano, a waitress who works at a Beverly Hills restaurant.

Kawano says the drought is a concern for her at home and at work, where she's being asked to watch how much water she serves customers.

"If they don't ask you, the manager says, don't refill the water," Kawano said.

Overall, Californians cut their water consumption in September 10.3 percent, about 22 million gallons. Gov. Jerry Brown's goal for the state is 20 percent.

The Department of Water and Power says the new data will help water districts monitor how well conservation efforts are working.

"In our case in L.A., we look at every amount of water that goes into the system and how much we sell, and it's divided over both the residences, commercial, industrial, all the users, and that's the number that we get," LADWP Water Systems Manager Marty Adams said. "We use that to compare against ourselves and see how we're doing so as we save water we'll look to see that that number goes down and down."

Beverly Hills isn't the worst offender. In Orange County, the wealthy suburb of Cowan Heights uses more than 569 gallons of water per person per day.