The Weekly Newspaper of Torrance Herald Publications - Torrance, El Segundo, Manhattan Beach, Hawthorne, Lawndale, & Inglewood Community Newspapers Since 1911 - (310) 322-1830 - Vol. 5, No. 15 - April 9, 2015 Inside This Issue Certified & Licensed Professionals.....................10 Classifieds............................4 Crossword/Sudoku.............4 Film Review..........................3 Food.......................................7 Legals....................................9 Police Reports.....................3 Real Estate.........................12 Sports....................................6 TerriAnn in Torrance..........2 Weekend Forecast The city of Torrance is represented by two state senators and one assemblymember and all three were the featured speakers at the State of the State luncheon held on April 2 at the DoubleTree by Hilton Torrance. Speaking on matters concerning the South Bay were State Senator Isadore Hall III (35th District), State Senator Benjamin Allen (26th District) and State Assemblymember David Hadley (66th District). Pictured (L to R) are Dan Thomas from Time Warner Business Class, State Assemblymember David Hadley, Ghislaine “Ges” Davis from South Bay Village, Sarah Wiltfong from Assemblyman Hadley’s office and Tim Thompson from Centaurus Financial Inc. Photo provided by Torrance Chamber of Commerce. Friday Partly Cloudy 65˚/54˚ Saturday Sunny 68˚/55˚ Sunday Sunny 68˚/56˚ Senators, Assemblymember Speak at State of State Luncheon City Takes Additional Steps to Conserve Water By Cristian Vasquez With the ongoing water drought afflicting the state, Governor Jerry Brown signed an executive order implementing the first-ever state-mandated restrictions water reduction efforts and the City of Torrance is ready to take the steps necessary to do its part to save water. Given the state’s fourth year of a drought and the recent record-low snowfalls during the winter, Gov. Brown is seeking to reduce water use throughout the state by 25 percent. “What you are going to see is many communities affected differently than us,” Senior Analyst for the City of Torrance Public Works Chuck Schaich said. “There are communities that use a lot of water and we are generally one of the more efficient water-using communities.” During Tuesday night’s council meeting, Schaich gave a presentation briefly discussing the state’s goals as well as the city’s current efforts to save water and what additional steps the city could take to contribute to the statewide, water-saving effort. The first ordinance by the city was established in 2014 when the council approved raising its water conservation awareness to Level 1, which is the current status that requires residents to water their lawns no more than three times a week, for no more than 15 minutes at a time and that all leaks be fixed within seven days. At Level 1 it is asked that residents refrain from watering lawns between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. These requirements will change if the level to ordinance gets adopted, which seeks a 30 percent water reduction and asks that lawns be watered two days a week, between the hours of 6 to 8 p.m. and only for a period of 10 minutes. The executive order by Gov. Brown directs the State Water Resources Control Board to impose the 25 percent reduction goal on the state’s 400 local water supply agencies. The agencies will be responsible for developing restrictions to reduce water use and for monitoring compliance. “We supply about seventy-five percent [water] for the City of Torrance. The other water company, California Water Service Company, provides the other twenty-five percent and we are reaching out to the community and we are having conversations with residents and we will be working with them fairly closely on them,” Schaich said. There has been a big focus on residential savings but there are also expectations from local businesses to do their part. “It is different but to the extent that they [businesses] have restrooms, or kitchen facilities or landscaping, there are those similarities and we would certainly encourage them to put in low flow toilets, low flow fixtures,” Schaich said. “They have kitchens then they can sign up to some of our programs.” Developing details as to how to preserve water and enforce compliance is in the hands of the water agencies. Currently, the state and city provide several water conservation programs that would also result in financial benefits to homeowners. For landscaping, there are several programs, including a turf removal program which pays $2 per square foot to remove a lawn and put in California Friendly landscaping. “The reason we offer that program is because California-friendly landscaping takes one quarter to one half the water that a traditional lawn takes, so it is a big saver,” Schaich said. “In a single family home in Torrance, to put it into perspective, the average single family residence has the traditional lawn on the outside and just by doing the front lawn, they can cut water use by twenty percent.” The presentation by Schaich is just the first step for the city to develop more water saving techniques, and the issue will be addressed during the upcoming council meetings. “Right now this is informational and we will be coming back in a week or so,” Torrance Mayor Pat Furey said. “It looks like we will be going to a different level with the water in the City of Torrance. I think there are a number of things that people can do aside form the mandated things, as well. There are proactive efforts we can do ourselves such as changing to drought friendly landscape. On the website the city offers rebates to scrape lawns and put in drought tolerant plants.” The City of Torrance is part of a regional network, and is a member agency of the Metropolitan Water District. The Metropolitan Water District is the wholesaler of 55 percent of all the water in Southern California. As part of their program they have established a regional website, www.bewaterwise.com that provides a large amount of information regarding ways to cut water use, both for residents and businesses. •
Torrance_040915_FNL_lorez
To see the actual publication please follow the link above