Malibu residents asked to cut water usage by 30%

MALIBU, Calif. (KABC) -- The city of Malibu is asking its residents to cut back their water usage by at least 30%.

Like the rest of Southern California, the city of 10,000 residents is dealing with drought conditions.

"Southern California is in deep trouble," said Malibu Mayor Paul Grisanti. "Our sources of water have been shut off entirely or greatly restricted. The Colorado River water is no longer a factor for us. We all got to pull together on this so that we can survive until the next rainy season. We hope we actually have a rainy season this winter."

On Wednesday, the Los Angeles City Council voted to have the department of water and power to come up with plans on how to deal with the water crisis facing the city.

"We need a new normal of policy making to meet the new normal of the water crisis that we're facing right now," said City Councilman Paul Krekorian.

Southern California water districts have told us most of our water usage, as much as 70%, is for outdoor watering.

Malibu is recycling water it uses for irrigating public parks and other municipal areas. That means the city is getting multiple uses from its water.

Malibu has a lot of very large properties that use a lot of water, and the city realizes asking these property owners to cut back will be a challenge.

"Some people don't even manage their own gardening, they don't manage their own watering of their properties so they're a bit harder to reach," said Matt Myerhoff, a spokesperson for the city of Malibu. "They're not receiving things in the mail about their landscaping so that's a tough nut to crack."

So how will the city enforce all of this? City officials said they're going to rely on residents and business owners to basically use an honor system.