City Council Votes to Purchase $115,500 of Water from Arcadia

This story was written by Dan Abendschein and Craig Clough

The Sierra Madre City Council voted unanimously at its Tuesday meeting to spend $115,500 from a water reserve fund to purchase imported water from Arcadia and/or L.A. County's Metropolitan Water District to help replenish a city well that is running low. 

According city reports, Sierra Madre's Well 4 has run so low that water cannot be pumped from it, leading to increased stress on the city's other wells. Arcadia has an existing connection to the Sierra Madre water system that would allow the water to be transferred. 

Public Works Director Bruce Inman told the city council that the city last purchased water from Arcadia in 2004 and 2005 when Well 6 had to be shut down due to contamination.

“So basically, when we bought [water] in ’04-05 it was solely because of contamination, it wasn’t because the aquifer was down?” Council Member Chris Koerber asked Inman.

Inman replied that was correct, and said this will be the first time the city will be purchasing water because the aquifers are low.

The contract will allow the city to purchase 800 acre feet of water—according to the staff report, based on June usage figures, the city projects to use 3,051 acre feet in a year, though the staff report refers to that level of usage as "excessive."

The report also notes that Arcadia officials can provide more water if necessary.

The city report lists several options for purchase including possibly purchasing water from the Metropolitan Water District, the biggest supplier of imported water to L.A. County cities.  

Sierra Madre has already enacted water restrictions meant to cut residential usage by 20 percent, and also voted to make revisions to those targets at Tuesday night’s meeting. According to Inman, the restrictions resulted in the city using 7.5 million less gallons of water in June compared to June of 2012.

Unlike most other local cities, Sierra Madre relies almost exclusively on local water sources rather than imported ones—after a dry winter, the city found its aquifers had dried up significantly, according to the city's reports.