LADWP adopts new policy to reduce water waste

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- In the midst of California's historic drought, video captured by angry residents showed 70,000 gallons of water being wasted in Eagle Rock.

"We're asking people to conserve and yet, in the process of doing our daily work, we weren't doing the best that we could to conserve at the same time," said Marty Adams, director of water operations at Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.

During a Los Angeles City Council meeting Wednesday, DWP officials outlined its new plan to recapture water drained during future maintenance projects. The motion for the new policy, issued by Councilman Jose Huizar, sparked from the very incident caught on camera. At the time, DWP was draining the Eagle Rock Reservoir to fix a corroded pipe and was sending the water to storm drains.

Officials said this had been standard practice for routine maintenance but that this practice no longer makes sense.

"To just dump drinking water out to the ocean is in contradiction to everything we are doing to get people to conserve water," Huizar said.

Under the new policy, the LADWP will:

• Discharge water into the sewer instead of the storm drain, allowing the city to reclaim water and use it in recycled water programs
• Collect water into tankers and take it to a groundwater recharge basin, a reservoir or a park to water grass
• Or pump the water to another section of the system where it can be used as drinking water

They said they believe these new practices will save millions of gallons a year.