The Weekly Newspaper of El Segundo Herald Publications - El Segundo, Torrance, Manhattan Beach, Hawthorne, Lawndale, & Inglewood Community Newspapers Since 1911 - (310) 322-1830 - Vol. 104, No. 17 - April 23, 2015 Inside This Issue Certified & Licensed Professionals.....................14 Community Briefs...............2 Classifieds............................4 Crossword/Sudoku.............4 Film Review..........................3 Legals............................ 12,13 Obituaries.............................2 Police Reports.....................2 Real Estate...........9-11,15,16 Sports.................................5,6 Weekend Forecast Employees from Raytheon’s El Segundo operations volunteered April 11 at the Los Angeles Food Bank. This is an annual initiative In recognition of National Volunteer Week (April 12-18). Photo courtesy of Raytheon. Friday AM Clouds/ PM Sun 66˚/55˚ Saturday Partly Cloudy 66˚/55˚ Sunday Sunny 69˚/58˚ Raytheon Employees Volunteer at Los Angeles Food Bank City Council Considers Stricter Water Conservation Requirements By Brian Simon In the wake of California’s continuing drought that has reached historic severity and the Governor’s recent executive order to reduce water consumption, El Segundo residents will be asked to further conserve their own usage of the precious commodity. During Tuesday night’s City Council meeting, Public Works Director Stephanie Katsouleas presented a series of staff recommendations to beef up El Segundo’s existing water conservation ordinance from 2009 to align the City with State requirements set to be approved in early May and go into effect on June 1. While the State Water Resource Control Board called for measures to cut water usage by 25 percent overall, the reduction goal won’t be applied evenly across California. Reduction ranges will be set from 10 to 35 percent depending on a particular city’s existing consumption patterns. With that in mind, El Segundo residents will be asked to cut water usage by 20 percent—based on an average consumption allocation of 55 gallons per day (equal to four units per person per billing cycle) to meet basic indoor needs. El Segundo residences averaged 95.4 gallons per day according to the most recent statistics, with landscape and irrigation usage accounting for the overage. Staff-recommended municipal code updates include limiting outdoor watering to two days per week. El Segundo’s current water ordinance restricts the time (may be done between 5 p.m. and 9 a.m. only) and duration (15 minutes per station) of watering, but not how many days per week it can take place. Katsouleas asked the Council to consider designating specific days for all residents to water, but the group was reluctant to impose a set calendar. Mayor Suzanne Fuentes preferred to “leave it up to the people” and avoid a police enforcement scenario. “If we tell them [residents] they need to conserve, they will,” she said. Councilmember Mike Dugan thought it more sensible to spread out watering dates, as people may end up oversaturating their lawns if restricted to two days. Another suggested code change is to limit landscape watering 48 hours before or after predicted rainfall. The City ordinance currently only restricts watering during actual rainfall. This item didn’t sit well with Mayor Pro Tem Carl Jacobson, who questioned how anyone can accurately predict when it’s going to rain. Fuentes added that some residents don’t know how to turn off their sprinklers (that may be on timer systems). She suggested encouraging residents to follow the 48-hour guideline, but not to make it a requirement. Other proposed revisions include completely prohibiting washing down driveways and sidewalks (local residents can do so now as long as the water doesn’t reach the storm drain); not allowing watering of landscape medians with ornamental turf unless using recycled water; and revising the building code to allow only drip irrigation or microspray for landscaping of newly constructed homes. West Basin Municipal Water District Associate General Manager Fernando Paludi touched upon conservation incentives such as available rebates for removing turf (recently increased to $3 per square foot) and for exchanging old sprinklers for new smart controllers that sense weather conditions. The agency will promote these and other options. “When armed with information, they [water consumers] tend to do the right thing,” Paludi said. Meanwhile, Dugan emphasized the idea of reducing consumption “in a creative way—not in a policing way” so that the end result isn’t simply “shutting water off and killing landscaping.” He also thought the City ought to look into the future viability of recycled water and grey water systems. Earlier during public communications, Tree Musketeers Executive Director Gail Church reminded the Council that El Segundo is home to the nation’s largest water recycling plant (West Basin’s facility on Hughes Way) and yet that water is not available for residential landscaping. “Recycled water is the long-term answer to a green El Segundo,” she said. Church also maintained that “everyone needs a plan for See City Council, page 4
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