The Sierra Madre City Council will vote at its Tuesday meeting on whether to spend $115,500 from a water reserve fund to pay for imported water from Arcadia and/or L.A. County's Metropolitan Water District to help replenish a city well that is running low.
According to the city report, 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.
The contract would 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 than the 800 acre feet of 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 will also discuss making revisions to those targets at Tuesday night's meeting.
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.
The City Council meeting is at 6:30 on Tuesday at City Hall.
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