Watering Your Lawn Gets a Bit Easier

Withering vegetable gardens and flowerbeds will get a reprieve thanks to a new plan dug up by the Los Angeles City Council.

When the Southern California drought had water reserves fall to record lows, families were asked to restrict their water usage to only Mondays and Thursdays before 9 a.m. and after 4 p.m.

Some of that surge in water on those days caused some of the aging pipes to burst and fire hydrants to explode into the air, but the new plan will allow usage to even out.

"It's a quick and simple solution, but we still have to be careful about the water," said Councilman Tom LaBonge.

LaBonge was among the councilmen who approved the new times for homes.

Any house with a street address that ends in an odd number—1, 3, 5, 7 and 9—can turn on their sprinklers or water their lawns on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, but again only before 9 a.m. and after 4 p.m.

Houses with even numbers—2, 4, 6, 8 and also the number 0—can water on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays before 9 a.m. and after 4 p.m.

If your address ends in a fraction or letter, such as 524A or 4321 ½ then the address will be treated as the last whole number and follow the same rules. So, 524 would be an even number and 4321 would be an odd number.

Councilman Paul Koretz, who also represents parts of Studio City, added a request that the council not have a watering schedule that includes watering on the Sabbath because observant Jews couldn't water on Saturdays. Koretz's motion was approved unanimously. 

Officially,  spray head sprinklers and bubblers are non-converving models nd are allowed to be on at eight minutes per watering station. Rotors are allowed 15 minutes at two cycles a day, but are still restricted to before 9 a.m. and after 4 p.m.

Hosing down driveways is still a no-no, and leaky sprinklers must be fixed. Hand-watering gardens is OK, as long as you have an automatic shut-off valve on the hose, and again, it's before or after the 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. restrictions.

The city is offering a rebate of up to $8 per nozzle for people switching to water-conserving sprinkler nozzles.

For more clarification and other questions, contact the LADWP Water Conservation Team, or call 1-800-DIAL DWP or send e-mails to waterconservationteam@ladwp.com.