Returning middle and high school students in Walnut are adding an extra item to their agendas – helping members of their community monitor their home’s water usage.
Dubbed Project Bright, the students earn community service hours by engaging with the public over the environmental and fiscal benefits of more efficient water usage.
A month after water restrictions were placed on communities in the San Gabriel and Inland valleys, many are meeting required conservation goals.
Customers in the Three Valleys Municipal Water District are using 36% below the maximum amount of water currently allotted, according to the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. The latest figure, which reflects data for the month of June, surpasses the 20% reduction residents were asked to meet beginning June 1.
A proposal to create a watchdog for South Los Angeles County’s dozens of disjointed and struggling water systems has stirred fear among public agencies and companies further down the pipeline that they could be the target of hostile takeovers. AB 1195, introduced by Assemblywoman Christina Garcia, would establish the Southern Los Angeles County Regional Water Agency and grant it authority to assist failing water systems with aging infrastructure, or to take control if a system is no longer able to provide affordable, clean drinking water.
Water is life. It is essential to the survival of all living things and has been at the center of my work for over three decades as a public servant. I did not select this cause arbitrarily, but because our communities were suffering, and no one was speaking out about safe, clean water supplies for residents of the San Gabriel Valley and greater east Los Angeles County.
The Water News Network is San Diego County’s source for water news and information.
