Water district restricts water use by apartments, businesses

Mesa Water District officials approved new drought measures this week, this time targeting the habits of apartments, condominiums and businesses.

Effective Tuesday, such users within Mesa Water’s service area — which includes Costa Mesa and portions of Newport Beach — can no longer do outdoor watering. The exception is if they’re using recycled, nonpotable water.

Single-family residences are still permitted to water outside, but only one day a week: Saturdays before 8 a.m. or after 5 p.m.

Mesa Water issued that limitation last month following another one issued in May.

Tuesday’s new restriction and the others affecting single-family residences last through Feb. 29.

The move comes after Mesa Water failed to meet its monthly state-mandated conservation goals in September, October and November.

The goal is a 20% reduction, starting in June of this year through February of next year, compared to those same months in 2013.

District officials have logged hundreds of water conservation violations — 405 in November alone — but as of this month, none of them have escalated to the level of issuing monetary fines.

Mesa Water says it is working with its top 250 users by providing them monthly updates on their water conservation progress.

The district also noted that it is using “Meter Masters, a data logger that records hourly water usage, to provide information to the customers about their water use behavior, and to verify that customers are abiding by the water conservation ordinance. Additionally, many of the top 250 accounts utilize automated meter reading technology where hourly water use data is stored within the meter and can be manually or automatically downloaded.”