The meanings and limits of ‘local water’ in Los Angeles

• Main Author: RANDLE, Sarah Priscilla
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2018
• Subjects: Environmental Policy
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/cis_research/107; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/cis_research/article/1106/viewcontent/localWater.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

In the fall of 2014, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti held a press conference in front of the L.A. Department of Water and Power’s (DWP) downtown headquarters to sign his Executive Directive #5, titled “Emergency Drought Response – Creating a Water Wise City.” ED5, as everyone called the Directive, was meant to be the mayor’s big symbolic gesture signaling his seriousness about addressing the region’s ongoing drought crisis. His staff had invited several leaders of local environmental NGOs to stand by his side during its signing.As the assembled crowd of journalists and environmentalists looked on, Garcetti explained how, due to the past few years’ dismal precipitation, both in L.A. and across the region, the city had been forced to buy a higher-than-usual volume of imported supplies from the region’s largest water wholesaler, the Metropolitan Water District[1] to meet demand. Expressing distaste for the expense and potential insecurity of this supply, Garcetti revealed one of the Directive’s three goals: a reduction in the DWP’s purchase of imported potable water by 50% by 2024. To make these cuts possible, he told the crowd, the city would rely on increased conservation and the use of new, locally sourced water supplies, such as stormwater and recycled wastewater.