Lamorinda Residents Named As Top Water Consumers In East Bay: Reports

LAMORINDA, CA — Two Lafayette residents are among the highest water users in the East Bay Municipal District, according to a list published Tuesday. Frank Worner and Stephen Cortese, who rank eighth and ninth on the list of highest daily water usage from mid-July to mid-September, will now face fines hovering around $1,000 for excessive use.

Some of the highest consumers in the entire district all live in Alamo: developer Tom Seemo, former Chevron Vice Chairman George Kirkland, and former Safeway CEO George Burd.

In April, MUD’s board of directors declared a Stage 2 drought emergency, and set an excessive use penalty for districts using more than 1,646 gallons of water per day over a two-month billing period - roughly eight times as much as the average MUD user, according to a report in The East Bay Times. Customers receive two written warnings before they are fined $2 for every 748 gallons of water used above 1,646 gallons. While still relatively generous, MUD’s policies are some of the most aggressive in California.

Related: CA Imposes New Water Cuts As Drought Intensifies

However, the district realized that fines, which can come to about $1,000 for some of the top users, don’t mean much to these users, who often use so much water because they are watering the lawns of their vast estates. So they try public shaming instead by publishing a list of the top users. California’s public records laws allow water districts to release names and water usage totals of customers if they feel it is in the public interest to do so, according to The East Bay Times.

“For people who are very wealthy, fines don’t really matter,” former chair of the state Water Resources Control Board Felicia Marcus told The Times. “Releasing the information elevates the attention not just to those folks, but to all the other water wasters.”

Some of the people on the list told The Times that they are trying to change their usage patterns. Alamo resident Mahmood Alam, a commercial real estate investor who ranked three on the list, told The Times that, “we have to do something about it to lower the usage of water,” but also said he isn’t sure how to landscape his home without it.

Danville resident Lori Lawrence, at number five, told The Times that she and her husband have installed drip irrigation, put in drought-tolerant plants, and fixed a large water leak.

Here are the average daily water uses of the ten highest users in the East Bay Municipal Utility District from mid-July to mid-September:

1. Tom Seeno, Alamo (9,138 gallons)
2. Kristen Darcy, Alamo (7,779 gallons)
3. Mahmood Alam, Alamo (7,583 gallons)
4. Gerhardt Schmoeckel, Alamo (6,6683 gallons)
5. Lori Lawrence, Danville (5,827 gallons)
6. Steven Burd, Alamo (5,498 gallons)
7. George Kirkland, Danville (5,223 gallons)
8. Frank Worner, Lafayette, (4,987 gallons)
9. Stephen Cortese, Lafayette (4,894 gallons)
10. Andy Hansen, Alamo (4,737 gallons)