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Quartz Hill Water District to enforce mandatory restrictions

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Using a hose to wash down any sidewalks, walkways, driveways, parking areas or other paved surfaces is a willful violation and shall be punishable by fine of $100 per incident, according to the mandatory water restrictions effective August 14, 2014.
Using a hose to wash down any sidewalks, walkways, driveways, parking areas or other paved surfaces is a willful violation and shall be punishable by a fine of $100 per incident, according to the mandatory water restrictions effective August 14, 2014.

QUARTZ HILL – Responding to the state drought measures, the Quartz Hill Water District will be enforcing mandatory water restrictions come August 14, with penalties starting at $100 per incident and culminating in water service termination.

The mandatory water restrictions and penalties are detailed in an “Urgent Drought Notice” being mailed to the District’s nearly 6,000 customers. Read the letter below:

The State has declared Emergency Drought Conditions. The State Water Resources Control Board passed Resolution 2014-0038 that dictates we are to proceed with MANDATORY WATER RESTRICTIONS.

On August 6, 2014, the Board of Directors has resolved to implement relevant portions of our Water Shortage Contingency Plan that is a part of our Urban Water Management Plan. The District has preset regulations that we now must enact and enforce. Our overall goal is to see a 20% reduction from every customer.

  • Effective August 14, 2014, we are assigning every other day watering for our customers. If your address ends with an odd number, you will be allowed to water your yard on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. If your address ends in an even number, you will be allowed to water on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. No one can water on Sunday.
  • Watering between 9 a.m. and 10 p.m. is strictly prohibited and can result in daily fines of $100 per violation, after an initial warning.
  • Run off or “nuisance water” is deemed to be excessive. Excessive watering is considered wastage as noted in Article 8:05A(3) and 8:07A and will result in fines and can even result in termination of your water service.
  • The State is now requiring us to enforce these regulations. As called out in our adopted policy, you will first receive a courtesy warning. After 24 hours, if the problem persists, you will be fined no less than $100 per incident. If the waste is not resolved, the District may disconnect your service as called out in Article 8.05B(3).
  • Using a hose to wash down any sidewalks, walkways, driveways, parking areas or other paved surfaces is a willful violation and shall be punishable by fine of $100 per incident.
  • Washing of vehicles must be done with a hose that is fitted with a shut-off nozzle. When the vehicle is not being rinsed, the water must not be flowing.
  • Fountains and decorative water features are prohibited unless the water is recirculated. Recycled water is not mandated, but encouraged for fountain use.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact the office or refer to our website.

View the water restrictions postcard being sent out to Quartz Hill Water District customers here. For more information on these restrictions, contact the Quartz Hill Water District at 661-943-3170 or visit www.qhwd.org.

Water conservation tips can also be found on the Quartz Hill Water District’s website at http://www.qhwd.org/Conservation_Tips.html.

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Related story: PWD water conservation measures effective Aug. 1 

Filed Under: Lancaster, Palmdale

36 comments for "Quartz Hill Water District to enforce mandatory restrictions"

  1. The city of Lancaster Quarts Hill East and west North and south Commercial Buildings on there watering days runs off into the street, geeze a little water can b fined, do the big wigs get fined to or is it the little communities that can’t seem to get there grass up to the cities standad n not the homeowner’s standard. Brown dead patches in people’s yard is not there fault if they can’t afford to put in the money and get fined for it and now u can’t even hose down your own side walk from the house door to the driveway, if i’m not mistakin home owners buy there house to look nice not have a crappy yard and nothing to show for, wow. The ocean has plenty of water, i think it’s time to give back to the community and Seriously fund gravel rocks for those who need to cover there dead grass due to water droughtage….I’d hate to see people get fined for something they or we now can’t control, welcome to the future of Times are changing to the unknown of Oh well.

  2. Back during a drought in the 90s>

    -they recommended placing a layer of water absorbing pellets under the lawns and using underground soaker hoses instread of sprinklers .

    What happened to those ideas?

  3. Let me get this straight about the address and the watering days. QHWD said: if your address ends on Odd number, you water on Even days and if your address ends on Even number, you water on Odd days. Brilliant! Will someone teaches QHWD about Odd and Even numbers. Thanks!

    • Doesn’t Sunday start the week, so that would be day #1? If so, they’re having odd water on odd and even water on even.

    • I received my mailer regarding the water restrictions and I don’t see any reference to Odd days. The days on my mailer clearly indicate Monday, Wednesday and Friday for even numbered homes and Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday for odd numbered homes. There is no mention whatsoever as to Odd days. How silly. Everyone knows there is no such thing as odd and even days of the week.

  4. One of my neighbors just ripped out sections of grass put in additional concrete all on QHWD’s tab.

  5. $100 fine from the water district for over watering. $100 fine from the city of Lancaster for having a dead lawn. Pick your poison

  6. Well, the City of Lancaster fines $400.00 for dead patches on your lawn. Quartz Hill Water District fines $100.00 for using water not on your designated day. Hmmm??!! I guess it would be cheaper to face Quartz Hills fines. This is absurd! I have no problem rationing water, however, I feel the City of Lancaster needs to stop issuing fines for not having a totally green yard. We received a notice of pending fine of $400.00 for having a dead patch of lawn! Not a dead lawn! A small patch! We are planning on ripping the yard out next year and putting in a desert scape. We spent over $6000.00 to install EZ turf in our backyard, but can’t afford the $25,000.00 to do the front yard. I hate the look of rocks in the front yard but as a home owner, we are faced with no choice. Our neighbor did it last year after being faced with fines for her yard. Now it’s disgusting! Tall weeds protruding through ugly white rocks. I think the two cities need to meet and mutually agree on whether to water or not to water, instead of leaving us homeowners stuck in the middle.

    • $25,000 to xeriscape your front yard?! How much land do you have…?

      We xeriscaped our front yard in East Lancaster, did all of the work ourselves, purchased plants from Quartz Hill Nursery and Gravel/Rocks from Lee’s Bees…. Everything included, cost us about $1500..

      I’d be more than happy to come do your front yard for the bargain basement discount price of $12,500…. Heck, that’s 50% off! ;-)

      • I believe the $25K was to EZ Turf their front yard, not xeriscape. That does sound like quite a bit of property though.

        If you install, treat, and do the ground properly, weeds shouldn’t be a problem. I’m getting my rocks off (of the supplier) this week!

  7. So, QHWD thinks they’ll shut your water off just because you hose down your sidewalk or have some run off? QHWD better pull their arrogant heads out if their arrogant rear ends. They do that and someone else will own QHWD & be very, very rich. And riddle me this: just WHY is it they need to build a new building in the middle of a drought? How much water is being wasted on dampening down dirt?

  8. My lawn dies if I do not water twice a day.
    Every other day and 2 days on the weekend
    without water will result in a dead lawn.
    I am dreading seeing what is going to happen
    to my beautiful neighborhood. I do understand why you
    have to do this though.
    Pity the gardeners who will lose work as there will be
    no grass to cut.

  9. My lawn dies if I do not water twice a day.
    Every other day and 2 days on the weekend
    without water will result in a dead lawn.
    I am dreading seeing what is going to happen
    to my beautiful neighborhood. I do understand why you
    have to do this though.

  10. All these restrictions yet I see water trucks dump what I use an entire summer for my yard in a single load on a field for construction…. This is such a joke…. I cut back and cut back some more, do not threaten to shut off water which would make a home legally uninhabitable…. You mess with some bodies lively hood and you are making yourself a target…..

  11. Seriously, I’m all for these restrictions but even with them in place their are some properties on my block that are not even trying to fix how much they use…..

    There is 1 apartment complex on my street (everything else is regular houses)……The Sprinklers run for 1 hour at a time, the water shoots into the street and eventually runs down the street and ends up into a stagnant puddle…..

    Its so bad that Vector Control had to retrieve a dead bird from the standing water created by this complex.

  12. Is it my imagination or has this been an unusually mild August. It rained recently a couple times.

    It’s been in the low-90s and the weather channel predicts low-90s next week for THE MIDDLE OF AUGUST.

    What? It’s usually over 100 every day in August.

    What if climate change will change the Antelope Valley’s weather and instead of getting hotter, it gets cooler?

    • It has been a lighter summer; that is for sure. Outside of what, 1 week, we haven’t even broached above the low 100s and were steaming towards September.

    • As much as you are correct, climate is an annual average over a large area, such as a continent. Weather is what you see out the window right now. It’s much more about the mountain snow levels then a couple weeks of less then usual heat in one little desert.

    • You are quite correct in your assessment. We are heading to a cooler Antelope Valley. Climate Change means just that…a general change in all the weather around the planet. AS the poles heat up, the temperature in the middle becomes more modest. Eventually they figure, with increased rainfall, we might see the AV as it was thousands of years ago when it was an a huge lake…at least to a degree.

      What bothers me most here is that the solution to our problems of water shortage have never been tackled. Instead of stopping the fracking that wastes water at an unprecedented level, we get squeezed. Hell, they ship it all out of the state anyway on those bomb trains, the increased bass bills prove that. Instead of Terraforming the desert in order to help alter the weather to a more temperate state here in the AV, we’re pushed into “Desert Scaping”. How ridiculous! My neighbors have a Desert Scape that they water DAILY! No one complains at them or fines them.

      It’s the appearance that the water districts are pushing for, that and obfuscating that they are a part of the water waste.

      • If you’re neighbors have a desert scape “they water daily”…. They don’t have a desert scape…. ;-)

        Either that, or they’re morons. :-)

        We have xeriscape and hand water the plants/cacti/etc. about once every 2 weeks…

  13. No worries here! My lawn is 3/4 dead anyway. However, if I get a fine from QHWD for a dead lawn, they’ll get notice to kiss my [removed]. Or they can pay for concrete expansion of our driveway to cover some dead lawn & xeriscape the rest.

  14. The letter, as posted above, does not indicate how long we can water. Thus, we could water from 10:01 PM until 8:59 am?

  15. I can see watering every other day to conserve water. But why can’t everyone water on Sunday. Otherwise that’s 2 days the grass goes without water. Who voted for this? And if you force us to kill our yards and that is what you are doing. Will you offer us rebates of some kind to switch to rocks and ugly plants?

  16. So if my water service is disconnected, does that mean I can seek water services from L.A. Co.? I hate QHWD. Their customer service is atrocious and their rates are inflated. They obtain the majority of water from the same resources as LA Co. and any other local water suppliers; however they charge significantly more per unit and justify the cost by referencing the use of well water. I would love to disconnect my service from QHWD, BUT they got you by the short and curlies.

      • I can. We have dealt with the staff at QHWD numerous times. The field reps. are always polite, but the office staff isn’t. They are generally rude and condescending. I have asked to have our billing date moved and they were unable to help. We had an abnormally high bill one month, while on vacation (not home) for two weeks. I called to inquire and the lady was rude on the phone, telling me that she could send someone to check for a leak, but either way we were going pay or have our service disconnected. I didn’t even elude to not paying, I just wanted confirmation. When we initially had our service turned on, they wanted a deposit or said they could do a credit check. I told them to do a credit check. The lady told me to my face, “you won’t qualify. Our standards are pretty high.” Well we qualified. I guess a credit score of 750 is just good enough for them. Like the other guy said, they know you can’t go anywhere else for water, so what can u do about it.

  17. We conserve water then the water companies raise our rates because they aren’t selling enough water! There better not be a rate increase in our future without the water companies cutting back on their end.

    • QHWD has only increased rates when the cost of providing water increased. We are not for profit. Feel free to contact me at the office and I can explain our rate schedule. Please have your QHWD account number available when you call so we can specifically look at your numbers.

  18. So we have to save water so they can keep building more home that will use even more water.

    • Dear Bob, No new homes have been approved in many years. Within QHWD boundaries, there has been only one tract that was approved years ago, that finished building out last year. No new housing has been approved in our district since. Feel free to contact me at the office if you would like to discuss this further .