By Susan Motander
On Tuesday night, the Monrovia City Council voted to bring its ordinance regarding water conservation in alignment with the state’s regulations and to implement Phase IV of that ordinance. Prior to Tuesday’s meeting, the city had relied upon voluntary conservation. The state had mandated that stricter policies were required even though Monrovia had met the conservation goal mandated by the state, according to Director of Public Services Tina Cherry.
Phase IV requires that individual citizen’s water usage cannot exceed 72% of the use in the same time period in 2013. This is in accordance with the state’s mandate that the city conserve water by 28%.
In addition, in order to ensure this conservation, the ordinance now mandates the water conservation measures. Cherry said that the city’s primary goal was to encourage conservation rather than to punish those who over use water. “As the council requested, we are the carrot rather than the stick,” she said.
She went on to explain that the city’s first goal education and outreach. To that end, Cherry said, “The enforcement of this ordinance will begin on September 4th,” to allow the city to implement that educational process.
Cherry explained that there were six steps in the enforcement process. When the city first becomes aware of someone misusing water, a door hanger will be left at the residence or business. If a second contact is required, a personal contact will be made. The third step will be a written notification of the violation. Only when the problem is not corrected or the incorrect practices continue can fines be imposed. On a fourth contact regarding violation could result in a $100 fine. The next violation would be a $200 fine with a fine of $300 for additional violations.
Egregious violations can result in escalation of the steps, in other words, implementation of fines can incur immediately if the violation is severe.
Monrovia is limiting its fines to $300, although the state allows fines of up to $500.
Here is a brief overview of the conservation requirements of the city of Monrovia:
- No washing down of driveways, parking areas, tennis or other sport court or other paved surface except for sanitary purposes (In other words: Break out the brooms).
- Car washing can be done only with a hand-held bucket and a hose equipped with a shut-off nozzle. There are exemptions for commercial car washes with recycling systems, etc.
- No water for fountains, pools or other water features without recycling systems.
- Water to be served in restaurants only upon requests.
- Leaks in indoor or outdoor plumbing must be fixed within 48 hours of discovery.
- Watering and irrigation is now restricted as well, with the exception of commercial nurseries, golf courses, and other water-dependent industries. These restrictions include:
-Lawn and landscaping can be watered only between 6 p.m. and 8 a.m. the following day. This does not apply to drip irrigation systems, irrigation system maintenance, leak repair or new plating of low water usage plant or if reclaimed water is used.
-Watering is limited to 15 minutes per watering day. Watering can only be done every fourth day.
-Watering cannot overspray onto impermeable surfaces. In other words, sprinklers cannot water the street, driveway, or sidewalk.
-On windy days, sprinklers, fountains or other water features should not be used when the water can drift onto impermeable surfaces.
-No water within 48 hours of rain of greater than 1/10 of an inch.
-No water runoff from landscaping onto impermeable surfaces. In other words, no overwatering that results in water runoff onto streets or into storm drains.
- Commercial nurseries, golf courses, and other water-dependent industries shall only water ever third day and then only between 6 p.m. and 8 a.m. the next morning.
- Hotels, motels, bed and breakfasts, etc., must give customers the option to limit the change of towels and linens.
- Non-residential buildings must have water conserving toilets, urinals and efficient dishwashers and washing machines when replacing existing equipment.
There are other restrictions and exceptions in the code. More information is available on the city’s website at http://www.cityofmonrovia.org/publicworks/page/water-conservation-emergency-regulations.
