As the six million residents of California put up with extremely strict water restrictions, agencies are now more heavily cracking down on all of those not following the guidelines.
The primary agency is the Las Virgenes Municipal Water District, which managed some of the more wealthy areas of the state, such as Agoura Hills, Westlake Village, Calabasas, Hidden Hills, and areas of Malibu, as reported by USA Today.
This particular agency has started to put in place flow restrictor devices that govern just how much water is allowed to be utilized inside the house, along with being able to shut off the water entirely for outdoor use. Since the new rules were set in place, the agency has set up a total of 56 flow restrictors. These devices use a small hole for water to flow through, which ends up creating low-flow showers and appliances that fail to work properly.
Mike McNutt, a spokesman for Las Virgenes, claimed that once all of the restrictors are set in place, they are left there for a period of two weeks, but he claimed that only seven of the total 56 devices are still installed due to people taking the needed actions to get rid of them. He went on to state that another 1,600 customers are slated to get the devices set up, but the company can only do enough work to get a total of 20 set up each week.
“We’re talking celebrities, people who are very wealthy, people who live in gated communities,” claimed McNutt. “Nobody is getting preferential treatment.”
Up until now, the group has allegedly tried to target people who waste the most water, but many violators can get their names delisted from their rosters before a restrictor gets set up on their homes if they go in and sign a form and lower their household water use.
Kitti McMeel lives in Westlake Village and is a 71-year-old portrait photographer. She explained to the outlet that she has been attempting to drop her water use, but she has gotten three separate bills from the district informing her that she has surpassed her monthly allotment and she is going to be issued a flow restrictor.
She attempted to make some changes to her water use and started to personally record just how much she was using once she was notified. “I would like to have a life besides worrying about my water,” she explained.
If they choose to install a device on her house, she claimed that she “will figure out how to remove it myself or find someone who can remove it for me.”
