10-day Water Pipeline Shutdown

Water Shortage

10-day Water Pipeline Shutdown

Beginning Friday, March 18 and ending at 8 a.m. on March 28 the city of Pasadena will enforce a ban on outdoor watering with very few exceptions until pipeline deliveries resume. This will include washing cars and watering lawns and gardens.

The 10-day water pipeline shutdown is due to the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, which supplies about 60 percent of Pasadena’s water, planning a seismic retrofit of the F.E. Weymouth Water Treatment Plant in LaVerne. MWD will stop all water deliveries to Pasadena and many other foothill communities through its Upper Feeder Pipeline during the project.

For the 10 days of the pipeline shutdown, Pasadena must rely solely on its groundwater and reserves.

“Demand over a 10-day period typically is about 250 million gallons at this time of year.  But without a means of delivering water imported from MWD, we will have only 150 million gallons available to us,” said Shan Kwan, assistant general manager of water deliveries at Pasadena Water and Power (PWP). “ Pasadena must get through this 40 percent shortfall by cutting out landscape irrigation entirely  and saving indoors whenever possible.”

“This is an extraordinary water shortage situation that we are about to experience,” said Phyllis Currie, general manager of PWP. “It’s entirely unrelated to weather. Rain or shine, this shortage will continue until MWD can turn on its pipeline again and resume its usual water deliveries.”

"Pasadena needs to save every last drop of water for health, hygience and commericaloperations", Currie stressed, "which is why the city has opted to ban non-essential outdoor irrigation."

“While this water shortage is very serious, we must keep things in perspective in light of the situation we are seeing in Japan ,” Currie added. “Here we have a temporary obstacle that, with a bit of effort from everyone, can be easily overcome with relatively little impact,” she said.

The earthquake in Japan also “reminds us that this emergency water shortage is a good exercise in earthquake preparation as a similar catastrophic event could cut off our water supply,” Currie advised.

The pipeline shutdown was originally scheduled to end at 11:59 pm on March 27. This week, MWD pushed the construction schedule back eight hours and anticipates turning on the pipeline at 8 a.m. on March 28.

PWP encourages its customers to stay informed with daily updates and potential schedule changes at www.cityofpasadena.net/shutdown or by calling the Water Shortage Hotline at (626) 744-8888. Water waste can also be reported on the website and through the hotline.

This information is courtesy of:

Ann Erdman

Public Information Officer

City of Pasadena

Public Affairs Office