More water restrictions likely as California pledges to cut use of Colorado River supply
The City of Los Angeles will likely issue a final decision to close two reservoirs on the Colorado River in the next day or two, after the Board of Supervisors passed on 4-3 vote approval Tuesday for a resolution calling for the actions.
The Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to send the resolution to the City Council so that residents there can continue to watch and respond to the debate over the city’s water supply. Supervisors also voted to place the resolution on the agenda for a future meeting.
City leaders hope the resolution will send a message to Sacramento officials.
“The residents of the County of Los Angeles are going to be watching, and the City’s water supply is at stake,” said Supervisor Gloria Molina, the leading proponent on the resolution for the three supervisors who voted against it Tuesday. “We’re not going to be the next Sacramento. This is our city, our water.”
Supervisor Janice Hahn voted against the resolution (Hahn is in favor, Molina opposed), and Supervisor Don Knabe did not vote.
The resolution would close the San Gabriel Mountains Aqueduct. The aqueduct passes by the reservoirs in the San Gabriel Mountains for a part of the journey from Los Angeles County to the Colorado River.
It would also close the San Bernardino Aqueduct, which passes through the county but the reservoirs in San Bernardino County.
The board decided to take these actions to preserve the city’s water supply, after the Board of Supervisors last week rejected two alternative proposals that would have opened the reservoirs to greater use. Those decisions followed a May report from the California Department of Water Resources that estimated that without additional pumping, the reservoirs would run dry before the end of the century.
The city has been using the reservoirs since the 1890s to deliver water to the region. The reservoirs provide an estimated 30 percent of the city’s water supply, according to city
