LVMWD Designs and Installs Flow Restrictors by Las Virgenes Municipal Water District Jun 22, 2022 On a sunny Thursday morning in June, several journalists from major local media outlets in Los Angeles crowded around Las Virgenes Municipal Water District (LVMWD) Senior Field Customer Service Representative (FCSR) Cason Gilmer and his partner FCSR Fernando Gonzalez. The cameras were rolling, capturing all the details of a small, silver disc with a hole drilled in the middle, placed into a residential water meter. This disc is a flow restrictor. The previous day, LVMWD staff installed the first restrictors as an enforcement mechanism for customers who have repeatedly exceeded 150% of their water budgets. They were there to see how a flow restrictor works on a residential home. Designed in-house, combining input from engineering and field staff, the flow restrictor was developed during the COVID-19 pandemic to prevent customers who were not paying their water bills. The idea is to allow for enough flow into the home to continue providing enough water for health and human safety needs, but not enough flow for customers to irrigate their landscape. The restrictor is a thin, stainless-steel disc with a .0625 hole drilled through the middle. This disc reduces the flow of LVMWD’s standard .75 inch meter from 30 gallons per minute (GPM) to less than 1 GPM. These flow restrictors proved to be an effective tool in reducing past due bills and preventing abuse of Governor Gavin Newsome’s order prohibiting shutting off delinquent customers’ water service. Out of the pandemic and into an increasingly severe drought, LVMWD declared a water shortage emergency in June 2021. The District reduced outdoor water budgets by 25% beginning in November, and further reduced in May 2022 to 50%. With the change of the administrative code, the flow restrictors used during the pandemic were codified to be employed for repeat offenders of the District’s outdoor water restrictions. Once Gilmer and Gonzalez had the flow restrictor installed, LVMWD staff ushered the media into the back yard where the full impact of restricted flow was made apparent. The irrigation that just moments before was at full force blanketing the hillside with the drought’s elixir, were now relegated to quietly seep and bubble like an uneventful leak. From the backyard to the bathroom, media members saw firsthand the impact restricted flow has on a customer’s shower and sinks. Filling a glass of water was virtually indistinguishable from an unrestricted flow, but the shower head was noticeably less, even out of a water saving shower head. With the invention of the restrictor, there was an equally impressive effort undertaken to create the administrative program to make it all work. The Flow Restriction Implementation Plan was developed to notify customers of their continued exceedances of their water budgets, provide them ample opportunity and resources to curtail excessive water usage, and to prioritize the deployment of flow restriction devices to the most egregious water wasters. The entire process begins with notifications on a customer’s bill for their first exceedance of 150% of their water budget. For the second exceedance, customers receive a letter in the mail and a corresponding email warning them that without enacting conservation measures to reduce water usage, they could become eligible for a flow restrictor. Once a customer receives their fourth exceedance, they are again notified and become eligible to have a flow restrictor installed. These notifications also provide customers resources to reduce their water use and ways to postpone the installation of a flow restrictor, such as signing a Water Use Efficiency Commitment Form, registering for LVMWD’s WaterSmart portal to track water usage, and agree to an on-site visit from a third-party company that specializes in landscape irrigation. Currently there are 1,609 LVMWD customers eligible for the installation of a flow restrictor. Each week 20 customers are chosen who have reached four exceedances but have not submitted the commitment form. LVMWD field staff hand delivers notification tags to each customer’s property and the District uses a mass notification system to deliver texts, emails and phone calls. This comprehensive approach to notifying customers provides another opportunity to engage with the District to reduce water use and commit to a water efficient way of life. Many customers take this last opportunity to stave off the installation of the flow restrictor; some even come running outside and sign the form moments before the flow restrictor is to be installed. Once installed, the flow restrictor stays deployed for 14 calendar days. If a customer removes the flow restrictor they incur a $2,500 fine. If they continue to exceed their budget, the next installation of the flow restrictor stays deployed for 90 days, and the third installation lasts 180 days. “This is not meant to be punitive; this is to get people’s attention. The drought is serious, and all of us need to be part of the solution,” commented Mike McNutt LVMWD Public Affairs and Communications Manager. “Every customer who receives these notifications and signs a commitment form to reduce water usage is a win for the program and the entire community. Afterall, we are all connected by one water.” By the time the 11:00 am live shots started rolling, the question of how the flow restrictors work had been answered. Will it actually curb wasteful water use? That question remains open.
