Community

Helping residents to cut water use at home, West Basin Municipal Water District directors Ronald Smith, Carol Kwan and Donald Dear recently distributed 161 Smart(r) irrigation controllers to residents within their respective divisions with help from three community organizations - Dance Peninsula Ballet, Hermosa Beach Kiwanis,and Friends of Gardena Willows Wetlands Preserve.

A Smart(r) irrigation controller can save an average of 47 gallons of water a day.  The 161 controllers distributed will save roughly 2.7 million gallons a year.

At West Basin's December 2009 board meeting, checks were presented to each group to thank them for their assistance with the program:  Dance Peninsula Ballet received $810, Hermosa Beach Kiwanis received $810, and Friends of Gardena Willows received $795, based on the number of devices distributed at each event.

West Basin's Green Garden program provides free outdoor residential water audits to help homeowners conserve water, reduce runoff, make their landscapes healthier, and determine whether they qualify for a state-of-the-art irrigation controller and rotating sprinkler nozzle. Audits are conducted by a professional landscape technician.  New equipment is then given out at a "Green Garden" workshop, where residents receive training for the devices, learn water-saving techniques, and exchange their old water-wasting equipment for new water-saving devices.  Once the resident installs the equipment, a trained technician then follows up to make sure the device has been installed properly and ensure the device is working as intended.  The three nonprofit community organizations assisted with the exchange events.

Conserving water at home by using less in your yard (which can be up to 70% of home water use) will help reduce your water bill and save precious drinking water as we enter a fourth year of drought and face limited fresh-water supplies.

West Basin Municipal Water District is reducing its dependence on imported water through the Water Reliability 2020 program that will double conservation, double recycled water production and add desalted ocean-water to our portfolio by the year 2020.  Partnering with community organizations, businesses and other public agencies keeps West Basin lean and strengthens its programs.  West Basin is a wholesale water district that serves nearly a million people in 17 cities and unincorporated areas throughout its 185-square mile service area.