Tapping into water waste

Reduced supply increases need for conservation
BY PATRICIA FARRELL AIDEM, Staff Writer
Article Last Updated: 06/11/2007 10:45:33 PM PDT

SANTA CLARITA - Local water suppliers are urging conservation as summer approaches in this driest year on record - and as the region's main water supply is reduced to a trickle because of a threatened fish 300 miles away.

The Castaic Lake Water Agency and the four retailers that distribute the region's state water allocation plan an advertising blitz to spread the message that a little conservation goes a long way.

"We're working on an outreach campaign from movie ads to newspaper ads to bus benches... the whole nine yards," Thomas Hawes, the CLWA's water conservation program coordinator, said Monday.

Just 3 inches of rain have dampened the Santa Clarita Valley since Oct. 1, one-sixth of normal rainfall, limiting the amount of water that percolates to underground sources. At the same time, the state Department of Water Resources is pumping just a fraction of the norm from the Sacramento Delta to protect the Delta smelt, a fish population used to judge the ecological health of the water body that serves much of California via the State Water Project.

Local water officials say residents can combat the shortages by making some minor changes.
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