LATHROP – Those who aren’t taking water conservation seriously are getting notified in Lathrop.
In September and October, the City of Lathrop issued 22 warnings to homeowners who were the subject of complaints by residents about excessive watering, water runoff and watering at the incorrect times.
But as has been standard for Lathrop, the overall water usage, when compared to the 2013 benchmark numbers recognized by the State of California, continues to be well below pre-drought conditions.
In October – which was essentially just another summer month this year – residents used 101 million gallons of water a day when compared to the mark of 134 million back in 2013. That number correlated to a 24.6 decrease – just a tad below the state-mandated 25 percent for urban potable water usage.
The previous month, during a much hotter September, Lathrop residents used only 112.2 million gallons of water per day when compared to the 156.6 million that was measured in 2013 – a decrease of 28 percent.
And now that the year is ending the City of Lathrop has been issuing warnings and meeting with homeowners that have been accused of wasting water. They didn’t issue any tickets for the last two months of reportable data, but did record 22 incidents that will be logged for future reference.
Lathrop, however, is higher than the state average when it comes to reducing water.
Throughout the State of California in October the average customer cut back only 22 percent compared to Lathrop’s nearly 25 percent.
It was the first time since the mandatory cuts were initiated this summer that the overall state hasn’t met the 25 percent date.
And now that the weather has changed, residents will have a harder time finding out where to cut from – not being able to calculate the reduction in grass watering into the numbers that were achieved during the baseline year.
This week residents are expected to get dusted with a cold winter storm that will roll through Northern California early Thursday morning and is expected to drop as much as a foot of snow in the higher elections of the Sierra Nevada mountains.

To contact reporter Jason Campbell emailjcampbell@mantecabulletin.com or call 209.249.3544.