For all the discussion of how the city, parks and golf courses guzzle water, the lion’s share of L.A.’s supply is sucked up by residential customers, according to data from the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. Residents have consumed more than 57% of DWP water each year since 1969, and leaks such as the one on Sunset Boulevard last summer amounted to only 4% of the water used in L.A. on an average day, officials said. Historic data also show that conservation plans do work — each person was using an average of 189 gallons a day in 1969 for residential and commercial purposes. Today, the average is 131 gallons per person.

1978-'79:

Multi-family

homes began

to use more

water.

1991-'92:

Drought

prompted

conservation.

1977-'78:

Drought

prompted

conservation.

Residential homes

Includes beer makers,

refineries, factories and

other manufacturing

Water lost from pipe

leaks, firefighting,

evaporation, theft and

other unaccounted losses

Water used by city,

Recreation and Park

facilities and L.A.

Unified School District

Commercial

and government

use of water

has remained

relatively

constant.

1970-'71

1980-'81

1990-'91

2000-'01

2010-'11

50 billion

50 billion

50 billion

1969-'70

2013-'14

Governmental

1971-'72 peak: 8%

1988-'89 peak: 5%

1983-'84 peak: 11%

Non-revenue

Industrial

0

50

100

150

200

Fiscal year

50 billion

Total usage

100 billion

1971-'72

peak: 48%

1997-'98 peak: 33%

1976-'77 peak: 24%

Commercial

Multi-family

Single-family

How much water each group used from city's overall total

Governmental

Non-revenue

Industrial

Commercial

191.1

228.3

195.1

(In billions of gallons)

Multi-family residential

Single-family residential

Water usage since 1969 by customer type

(6)

(7.9)

(13)

17,964

24,375

40,157

(32.1)

(54)

(67.5 billion gallons)

98,530

165,654

207,021 acre-feet

Industrial

Commercial

Non-revenue

Multi-family

Governmental

Single-family

(1 af is about 326,000 gallons)

= 1,000 af

Average total:

acre-feet of water or

billion gallons

180.5

553,876

Average water demand between July 1, 2009 and June 30, 2014

Lorena Elebee / @latimesgraphics

Sources: Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, U.S. Census Bureau, Times reporting

Graphics reporting by Rosanna Xia

Any condo or apartment

complex

Businesses such as stores,

restaurants, spas and malls

1980s: L.A. grew

more than half a

million, increasing

the amount of

water consumed.

1990s: Many high-

flow water fixtures,

such as toilets and

shower-heads, were

updated with low-

flow water ones.

2014: Water usage

increased in the

past three years,

but is less than it

was in 1969, even

with 1 million

more people today.

Scaled back

beginning in

2007. Lawn-

watering

was limited.

Mayor Eric

Garcetti has

directed L.A. to

reduce its water

use 20% by

2017.

Single-family

homes used

47% of all water

consumed in

1969-'70, while

multi-family

homes used

only 16%.

By 2014, single-

family homes

were using 38%

of all water

consumed, and

multi-family

homes used

28%.