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(Amended by Ord. No. 172,075, Eff. 7/24/98.)
The Department of Water and Power shall adopt and promulgate rules by which owners of buildings may apply for exemptions from the requirements of this Article or appeal from surcharges imposed pursuant to Section 122.04. Any appeal from a surcharge made prior to the adoption of such rules shall be pursuant to the provisions of Section 121.11 F.* of the Los Angeles Municipal Code.
* Note: Former Section 121.11 ("Conservation Appeal Boards") was removed by Ord. No. 180,148, Eff. 8/25/08.
The purpose of this article is to provide a mandatory water conservation plan to reduce water consumption and avoid overloading the City’s sewage treatment system so as to reduce sewer flows by at least 10 percent within five years of the effective date of this ordinance. In particular, the Xeriscape requirements include providing alternatives for achieving reduction in landscape water consumption. By reducing water consumption, the City preserves the sewage treatment system. This measure will promote the health, safety and welfare of the citizens of the City of Los Angeles and the general public to the greatest extent possible.
(a) “Low-flow showerhead” shall mean a showerhead that allows a maximum flow rate or three gallons per minute, and meets the 1987 Appliance Efficiency Standard of California Administrative Code, Title 20.
(b) “Multi-family residential structure” shall mean any residential structure with three or more dwelling units.
(c) “Owner” shall mean any person, partnership, association, company, corporation or fiduciary in whom or in which is vested legal title to real property improved with residential, commercial or industrial buildings, or who or which possesses the power to convey legal title to the real property.
(d) “Water closet flush-reduction device” is a device, such as a tank dam, that when added to or attached to a water closet, will reduce the amount of water used per flush by at least one-half gallon. (Subsecs. (d) and (f) deleted, Subsec. (e) renumbered as (d) by Ord. No. 170,978, Eff. 5/13/96, Oper. 7/13/96.)
Initiation. When the Department of Public Works determines that the capacity available in the City’s sewage system is such as to necessitate the implementation of any phase of the Emergency Water Conservation Plan of the City of Los Angeles, Los Angeles Municipal Code Section 121.00 et seq., the Department shall recommend to the Mayor that one or more phases of the Emergency Water Conservation Plan be implemented. Thereafter the Mayor, with the concurrence of the City Council, may order that one or more phases be implemented, in accordance with the applicable provisions of this chapter. This order shall be made by public proclamation and shall be published one time only in a daily newspaper of general circulation and shall become effective immediately upon publication.
As an aid to the implementation of this article, the Department of Water and Power shall:
1. Distribute low-flow showerheads and water closet flush-reduction devices free of charge to all residential dwelling units for which building permits were issued prior to January 1, 1979; and
2. Monitor all water bills and notify those customers whose bills are determined by the Department to be significantly above average. These notifications shall commence within 90 days of the effective date of this ordinance. These notifications shall be accompanied by water conservation information, including instructions about water conservation audits conducted by the Department of Water and Power.
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