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 The wealthy Los Angeles area municipality was fined $61,000 on
Thursday, making it the only community not located in a desert to be
assessed penalties, the California State Water Resources Board said.
"Some urban water suppliers simply have not met the requirements
laid before them," said Cris Carrigan, director of the water board's
Office of Enforcement. “For these four suppliers, it’s been too
little too late."
"For those who aren't (conserving) and who are wasting water, you
should be ashamed of yourselves," Carrigan said.
Californians are under orders from the water board and Democratic
Governor Jerry Brown to cut usage by 25 percent over the levels used
in 2013. As a whole, the state has met that goal for four months
running, regulators said on Friday.
From June through August, California residents and businesses have
saved 253 billion gallons of water, board Chairwoman Felicia Marcus
told reporters.
But the cities of Beverly Hills, Indio and Redlands and the
Coachella Valley Water District have not met the standard, and each
were fined $61,000, the board said.
Beverly Hills, where some wealthy property owners continue to
maintain lush green lawns despite orders to conserve, residents used
about 169 gallons of water per person during September, compared
with 68 gallons used by residents of Los Angeles.
Beverly Hills residents have wasted 175 million gallons of water
since June, Carrigan said on the conference call.
'POCKET CHANGE'
One former Beverly Hills resident, Richard Greene, said the fine was
far too small for what he said was possibly the richest city in the
country, if not the world.
"Wow, ouch ... It actually seems to minimize the importance of water
conservation when you're fining the wealthiest municipality $61,000,
which is pocket change for most of the people you see walking up and
down this street," Greene said.
Beverly Hills spokeswoman Cheryl Friedling said in a statement that
the city is very concerned about not meeting the conservation
mandate, and that it has been working aggressively toward that goal,
even setting up a program to impose financial penalties on customers
who waste water.
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But she said the program did not start until this month. The city
also plans to hire additional staff to investigate violations of
conservation rules and put individual customers on personalized
conservation programs if necessary.
Beverly Hills resident Prashant Raj was against the fine.
"But I would also say that people should just be aware of how they
utilize the water," he said.
The municipalities and utilities that were fined were all warned in
August they were not meeting the state's targets, Carrigan said. He
said he expected them to pay the fines from reserve funds and did
not know whether the agencies would seek to recoup the money from
ratepayers.
Regulators urged continued conservation even if the El Nino weather
phenomenon brings winter storms, because the rain may not fall far
enough to the north to replenish vital mountain snowpack that melts
in the spring to feed the state's streams and reservoirs.
"We're in a tough pickle on this," Marcus said. "We have to prepare
for drought and flooding at the same time."
(Reporting by Sharon Bernstein; Additional reporting by Jane Ross;
Editing by Eric Beech, David Gregorio and Ken Wills)
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