LA County outdoor watering ban in place

LOS ANGELES - Starting Tuesday, Sept. 6, Metropolitan Water District customers in portions of LA County must stop outdoor watering for 15 days as a critical imported water pipeline is shut down for emergency repairs.

According to officials, the 36-mile Upper Feeder pipeline, which delivers Colorado River water into Southern California, must be repaired after a leak was discovered earlier this year. 

The repair is being made Sept. 6 to 20, during which the pipeline will be shut down. The shutdown will impact about 4 million residents, who were told to suspend outdoor watering for 15 days. 

"We need to make this urgent repair to ensure this infrastructure can continue serving Southern California in the immediate term and for years to come. While we do this work, we need people who normally get water from this pipeline to eliminate their outdoor water use to stretch the limited available water supplies," Metropolitan Water System Operations Manager Brent Yamasaki said. "We don’t take this call lightly, but it is what is needed at this time."

Metropolitan’s member agencies under this urgent call include the cities of Beverly Hills, Burbank, Glendale, Long Beach, Pasadena, San Fernando, and Torrance, as well as Central Basin Municipal Water District, Foothill Municipal Water District, Three Valleys Municipal Water District and West Basin Municipal Water District. Consumers under emergency conservation since June 1 will maintain the existing watering restrictions from their local agencies.