L.A.’s quest for water leaves costly bill: Higher rates for customers, choking air pollution
L.A. water use and pollution hit record highs in 2017, leaving businesses reeling and residents frustrated
Nearly 150,000 Californians got more than 25 gallons of water per day in 2017, according to a state report released Monday.
This number is just a small portion of the state population, but it represents a dramatic increase over the 12.8 million Californians who got their fair share in 2016, according to the report by the California Department of Water Resources.
In addition to the record number of people who gained access to water in the state, the report found that water use was highest in the San Joaquin Valley, the Central Valley and Los Angeles County.
The increase in water use comes amid a national and international trend of rising water consumption. It also comes as L.A. struggles with a new and expensive challenge: The price of its water, which is already more than twice the city’s price tag, is expected to go up yet again.
The state report was based on data collected last year by the California Department of Water Resources’ Water Quality Information System, or WQIS, a state-of-the-art water data tracking system.
The WQIS tracks the amount of water used by each consumer and household over the course of one year. It then calculates the average water use per person, which is then reported as an average annual water use per person.
Overall, the 2017 data revealed the average Californian used 43.4 gallons of water per day, which was higher than the previous high set in 2011, when 43.2 gallons were used daily.
The report also found that the average Californian used 2.4 gallons of water per day for washing clothes, and 0.5 gallons per day for doing laundry. The two largest water uses, however, came from household and industrial uses, which averaged 9.6 gallons per day and 1.8
