Airport to reduce water use

BOB HOPE AIRPORT — The Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority voted unanimously Monday to dramatically reduce the facility’s water usage.

The authority this week will move to a watering schedule of 15 minutes a day, per station, for up to three days a week; it will cut down to a single day for the winter months.

The vote to move from the first to second stage of Burbank’s recently modified water rationing ordinance comes one week after the Glendale City Council unanimously voted to initiate its second phase, limiting outdoor watering to Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays for no more than 10 minutes a day. The Burbank City Council is slated to hold a public hearing Sept. 1 to move from the first to the second stage.

Bob Hope and Burbank Water and Power officials on Tuesday could not provide figures for the airport’s total water usage, citing time restraints and problems tallying the 50 to 70 separate water bills the facility receives monthly.

“We’re implementing them now rather than later because it’s the right thing to do,” Commissioner Charles Lombardo said. “We’re a big property, and we use a lot of water.”

Director of Noise and Environmental Programs Mark Hardyment said the authority’s decision comes on the heels of a Metropolitan Water District of Southern California Board vote to hike rates nearly 20% and impose penalty rates on member agencies that exceed designated water allotments.

MWD’s allocation plan took effect July 1 and reduces shipments of imported water to member agencies by 10% from levels that had already been reduced another 10% the prior year. The largest water wholesaler for Southern California provides Glendale with up to 70% of its water supply and Burbank with about 55%.

Some 60 urban water districts, faced with a statewide population increase of 9 million people over 20 years, dwindling shipments from the State Water Project, and federal environmental court decisions protecting native fish species in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta region, have introduced mandatory conservation efforts, up from six last year.