LOS ANGELES – Mayor Eric Garcetti praised the Governor’s action on water conservation today and said that it will join with his Mayoral Executive directive from the Fall to further drive water use down in LA to reach Mayor Garcetti’s targets a reduction in per capita potable water use by 20% by 2017 and a 50% reduction in LADWP purchase of imported water by 2024.

The Governor’s announcement came earlier today following the State’s snow survey that show the snowpack at 6% of normal and the lowest on record. The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power’s (LADWP) most recent snowpack survey results show just 1-inch of water content in the Eastern Sierra, 2% of normal, that supplies water to Los Angeles via the Los Angeles Aqueduct. This the lowest level recorded in LA history.

Mayor Eric Garcetti said, “We are making the drought a top priority because this record drought threatens our economy and environment at crisis levels. I welcome Gov. Brown’s announcement and the state’s response to our historic drought, which joins with my directive to cut our city’s water consumption by 20% by 2017 and increase rebates for residential turf removal to $3.75 per square foot. Since I announced my executive directive in October 2014, Los Angeles has reduced its water consumption by 7 gallons per capita per day and we are on track to meet our goal of 20% reduction by 2017. And in the current fiscal year, we’ve replaced three times as much turf as we have in all of last year. Now we must keep up our momentum to conserve, recycle and rethink how we use water to save money and ensure we have enough supply so that our city can thrive.”(Full story at LAmayor)