Bradley Proposes a Trade-Off for Allowing New Water Hookups

In a move intended to head off more severe restrictions on development, Mayor Tom Bradley on Friday proposed that builders be granted permission for new water hookups if they partially offset the new water use by saving water elsewhere in the city.

Several proposals recently introduced in the Los Angeles City Council would reduce new water hookups or in extreme drought circumstances halt them entirely, thereby freezing development.

Bradley said Friday that his plan is “far more realistic and far less devastating to the economy of this community.”

“If we were to absolutely cut off new construction, you can imagine the devastating effect it would have on the economy, the construction industry, the supply industry,” Bradley said.

In a letter to the Department of Water and Power on Friday, Bradley asked that a task force be convened to work out details of a program to require builders to offset “some percentage” of the amount of water their new developments will demand from the DWP water system.

For instance, builders might be required to retrofit existing structures with water-saving devices or they might be asked to pay into a retrofitting fund administered by the DWP, Bradley said. The task force is to report to Bradley within 45 days.

Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky, who has proposed tighter water hookup measures, said Friday that Bradley’s proposal did not go far enough and accused the mayor of trying to delay action on the issue.

“When he doesn’t want to move on something, he just creates a task force to study it,” Yaroslavsky said.

Yaroslavsky has proposed that new hookups be slashed by twice the amount of any water cutbacks imposed by the city’s mandatory water rationing program.

For instance, when 10% cutbacks take effect March 1, new water hookups would be cut by 20% under Yaroslavsky’s plan. When 15% cutbacks take effect May 1, hookups would be cut by 30%.

If 50% water cutbacks are imposed--which officials said could happen in extreme circumstances--no new hookups would be permitted under Yaroslavsky’s proposal and development would come to a halt.