Rain makes conservation easier in Riverside County; WMWD asks customers not to water yards

Drought news from the Western Municipal Water District: Click to watch video.

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Two water agencies are asking customers to make extra efforts in water conservation for six days while a major water supply is taken out of operation for maintenance. The process started Monday, February 8.

The shutdown of the Metropolitan Water District’s Henry J. Mills Water Treatment Plant through Saturday, February 13, mandates the stoppage of all outdoor water use for customers of Western Municipal Water District, and voluntarily limits that of Eastern Municipal Water District’s customers in Moreno Valley and Perris Valley areas.

Western’s impacted customers are located in the Woodcrest, Lake Mathews, Orangecrest, Mission Grove, March Air Reserve Base, Air Force Village West, Lake Hills and Hillcrest areas of Riverside. Western’s board issued a water shortage emergency ordinance for that time period.

The Metropolitan Water District, from whom both Western and Eastern buy imported water supplies for their respective service areas, announced the shutdown at its Mills Plant for needed maintenance on the water infrastructure system. To do that, water supplies from the State Water Project coming into the plant will be halted. To ensure enough water for customers during those six days, the agencies are requesting extra efforts to reduce water use and conserve the more limited water supplies in storage.

In anticipation of this shutdown, Western’s board of directors declared that a water shortage emergency would exist during the period and adopted a water conservation plan for the timeframe. The conservation plan calls for restrictions on all outdoor water use. As Western relies heavily on the imported water source for its customers, these practices will be mandatory.

Eastern recommends no unnecessary outdoor water use during the shutdown. Alternative supplies from Lake Skinner could be directed northerly to Eastern’s customers to augment stored water and local groundwater, but at greater operational costs and staffing effort.

Western’s customers were notified of the shutdown and stoppage of outdoor watering via direct mail postcards, bill stuffers and reminder phone voice messages.

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