Los Angeles DWP loosens watering rules to three days a week, citing wet winter

Paul Ramirez, 54, waters the backyard at his home on St. Louis Street in Boyle Heights in May 2022 as his dog Bandit tags along. “We want to thank our customers for continuing to lead on conservation and helping us exceed our water conservation goals,” Anselmo Collins, DWP’s senior assistant general manager of the water system, said in a statement. “Over the past year, Angelenos reduced their water use an additional 10%, which is a remarkable achievement considering this was on top of the substantial long-term water conservation our customers had already achieved.” Prior to the change last June, Angelenos had been under a three-day-a-week ordinance since 2009. The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California — the massive wholesaler that supplies the DWP and dozens of other agencies in the area — declared its own water shortage emergency last year and placed 6 million people under unprecedented restrictions, including one-day-a-week watering limits in many areas. Gregory Pierce, director of the Water Resources Group at UCLA, said reverting from two days back to three is “reasonable as a short-term measure.” But he warned that as global conditions continue to get hotter and drier, residents probably shouldn’t get used to the more flexible schedule.