Further water restrictions imposed on 24,000 homes and businesses

Valley News Staff

Saturday, July 4^th, 2009.
Issue 27, Volume 9.

RIVERSIDE - Further restrictions on water use have been imposed on about 24,000 homes and businesses in parts of Riverside and Murrieta, a Western Municipal Water District spokeswoman said today.

Stage 2 measures -- which further restrict landscape watering to three nights a week -- were adopted Thursday, said WMWD spokeswoman Michele McKinney Underwood.

Landscape watering had already been prohibited since May to between 8 p.m. and 8 a.m.

Under the new measures, properties with odd number street addresses, parks and public right-of-ways can be watered between 8 p.m. and 8 a.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays, while properties with even number street addresses can be watered on Sundays, Tuesday and Thursdays.

Pop-up spray sprinklers are limited to a maximum of 15 Advertisement
minutes total run time, and rotary-nozzle sprinklers are limited to a maximum 30 minutes of run time, according to WMWD.

Further restrictions for Stage 2 are listed on the water agency Web site, www.wmwd.com.

The restrictions apply to WMWD's retail service area, which includes Woodcrest, Orangecrest, Mission Grove, Lake Matthews, and the Old Town section of Murrieta, according to McKinney Underwood.

Penalties for failing to comply with the restrictions begin with written notices, move up to $100 a day, and can run up to $300 a day for repeat offenders during Stage 2, according to WMWD.

A Stage 2 water alert, or "Minimal Water Shortage," is meant to reduce water usage by 6 percent to 10 percent.

3 comments for "Further water restrictions imposed on 24,000 homes and businesses"

4:52 pm Thu, Jul 9^th, 2009

1. Cindy Ferry says :

How about trying building moratoriums? How about trying instead of tax credits for having children they tax those having more than two children after say 2010? I think these would far better address the water shortage and how to overcome it then charging everyone more and allowing us less, while continuing to allow more building and more over population? People have been voluntarily cutting back on water for years and what has it gotten them? Mandatory cut backs! People have been planting water wise for years now. What has it gotten them? Higher water costs! Voluntary population control and building moratoriums would far better address the water shortage then the system we are now using. As long as we keep allowing growth we will never meet the water needs of residents in Riverside County. What happens when our water supply from out of state is cut off? Then what? Then it won't matter what the people are willing to pay for water. There just won't be any. If we can't produce enough here then there should be mandatory building moratoriums put in place. We aren't the only county or even state facing these water shortage issues. The Federal Government should be looking at ways to encourage volunteer population control to minimize the need for such high water demands. This would also address so many more issues, beside the water shortage issue.

11:53 am Fri, Jul 10^th, 2009

2. Steve says :

Thank you Cindy for saying what so many people are afraid to say. The problem is overpopulation and overbuilding ... period. My wife and I exercised voluntary population control by only having one child.

2:04 pm Fri, Jul 10^th, 2009

3. Linda R says :

An emergency building moratorium on future high density developments needs to be implemented immediately until a long term solution to our water shortage is found. The article about the construction of the new Hawthorn High School currently being built in the Home Gardens, La Sierra area was alarming. In this article it stated that this high school will be able to accept students from the future planned 5,000 residential development in the hills south of this school. It doesn’t make sense to allow the construction of all these new homes when we already have the highest number of foreclosures in the nation and this number is growing.. How many more of these large developments are planned? Approving high density homes to be built because they are constructed to use less water is not enough. The only people that benefit are the developers, large land owners and those that receive campaign contributions from the building industry. Allowing these individuals to profit at the expense of the existing residences is not only unfair but will further restrict everyone’s water use and increase the high rates we pay. Ours laws are very complicated with regards to the protection of land owners rights, but this drought is a serious emergency where water availability for the existing residences should be priority. The temporary construction jobs developments like this create will only reduce the water available to our industries that provide permanent jobs. A major earthquake could easily destroy our already delicate and problematic water delivery system leaving millions without water for an undetermined amount of time. In addition to this, increasing our population will require more power from the dams that are already dangerously low. No one can predict with certainty how long this drought will last but one thing that is certain is overpopulating a desert region, dependant on imported water, like ours, is a future disaster. California can no longer depend on growth to sustain it’s economy.

Further water restrictions imposed on 24,000 homes and businesses

3 comments for "Further water restrictions imposed on 24,000 homes and businesses"

Add your Comment