Beginning Friday, Western Municipal Water District customers will need to scale back or stop outdoor watering for nine days to conserve limited supplies while repair work is underway at a water treatment plant, according to the agency.
Metropolitan Water District of Southern California crews will be applying fixes and making modifications to the Henry J. Mills Water Treatment Plant in Riverside until Jan. 19, requiring the facility to be out of service.
During that time, the WMWD will not be able to import water, forcing the agency to rely on its finite reserves, officials said.
“It is important that western and its customers do our part to ensure that maintenance and repairs to this critical delivery system from Northern California run smoothly,” WMWD Board of Directors President Bob Stockton said. “We need our customers’ cooperation to reduce outdoor water use so that our remaining water supplies can meet the essential indoor needs of all our customers.”
Service areas that will be impacted by the plant shutdown are the Hillcrest, Mission Grove and Orangecrest neighborhoods of Riverside, as well as the Lake Mathews area and residences and businesses around March Air Reserve Base and the Air Force Village, according to the WMWD.
Customers who do heavy irrigation on large properties will be most affected by the voluntary reductions, provided they comply, officials said.
They noted that taking the plant offline was timed to coincide with the prevalence of cooler, wet weather, which has lowered irrigation needs.