Water Conservation

Water Drop

Water Conservation is important for three reasons:

  1. The Metropolitan Water District has placed upon us a restriction on the amount of water that can be used. This year the reduction is a mandatory 15%. If we don’t achieve that reduction there will be fines imposed. The fines could be as much as 1 Million Dollars. That would be a huge fine considering the number of customers in the Oak Park Water District.
  2. The amount of water available to Oak Park is limited because of the pumping restrictions in the Bay Delta. Unrestricted pumping is possible only about 2 months a year. Pumping is restricted in an attempt to protect endangered fish and other fish species such as the salmon and steelhead trout. That means even if all of the reservoirs in northern California were full there would still be water restrictions.
  3. Water conservation is the most cost-effective and environmentally-sound way to reduce our demand for water. Saving water also saves energy. 6.5% of the energy used in the state of California is for pumping and treating water--in fact, pumping water south (and uphill) in the State Water Project accounts for 2-3% of all the electricity used in the state.