



Los Angeles managed to cut water use by 17 percent in July compared with a year earlier, according to an announcement last week by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

Single-home residences cut their water usage by 20 percent, and multi-family homes cut usage by 8 percent.

“With the water shortage that we are facing, we must reduce our reliance on imported water,” Mr. Villaraigosa said in a statement, “and I am very encouraged that Angelenos have reduced their water consumption, especially during these summer months.”

Even government buildings in Los Angeles reported a 34 percent drop in water usage, according to Mr. Villaraigosa.

The water successes of the city — which also significantly cut its electric use by encouraging residents to turn in old energy-guzzling refrigerators, among other measures — are in line with a call by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in February for California cities to slash their water usage by 20 percent.

(Many cities in drought-stricken Texas are also tightening water restrictions.)

One exception, however, to all the water saving unfolding in Los Angeles: the mayor’s residence. According to NBC 4, a local news station, “During the past month at the mayor’s house, backyard sprinklers were running at 2 a.m. on a Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Tuesday — all in violation of the law.”

The station filmed the sprinklers at work.

The mayor’s response? “I sleep very heavily and I couldn’t hear it,” he told the station, also noting that overall water usage at the residence had nonetheless fallen.