Are you leaking?  Are you overdoing the watering?  Perhaps, you didn’t know there is an ordinance regarding water conservation.  Phase 2 of the mandatory water conservation ordinance has rules and fines.  Only warnings have been used so far.

Rules are that one may not:

• Water more than 3 days a week. Odd addresses may water with sprinklers on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Even addresses may water on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday. Absolutely no watering on Saturdays.
• Water between the hours of 9 a.m. and 4 p.m.
• Water more than 8 minutes per station.
• Water of any hard surfaces such as sidewalks, walkways, driveways or parking areas, except for sanitary purposes.
• Water outdoors during periods of rain.
• Allow runoff onto streets and gutters from excessive watering.
• Allow leaks from any pipe or fixture to go unrepaired.
• Wash vehicles without using a hose with a self-closing water shut-off nozzle.

First offenders will be warned and educated. Repeat violators will be subject to monetary fines from $100-$300 for residential customers and $200-600 for commercial customers.

From January through June 2014, the WCRU has received 1,400 reports of ordinance violations, 863 resulted in warnings or citation letters. However, no fines have yet been assessed. According to Rick Silva, the supervisor of the DWP Water Conservation Response Unit (WCRU), “We don’t expect to issue a lot of fines because people understand the drought but simply don’t know about the ordinance. After our interaction with them, they are usually able to correct the violation and comply with the ordinance.”  This approach worked well in previous years when LADWP used a small team to enforce the ordinance.  From 2009 through 2012, 9,000 warnings were issued and only 300 monetary fines were imposed while water use dropped over 20 percent citywide.