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VOL. 11,
NO. 150
LA County supervisors adopt plan to reduce reliance on imported water
Felon charged with killing 3 homeless men in LA, San Dimas slaying
By City News Service
By Terri Vermeulen Keith, City News Service
he Board of Supervisors Tuesday adopted a "water plan" for Los Angeles County Tuesday in an effort to bolster local water supplies and reduce reliance on more costly imported water. "The County Water Plan is a detailed blueprint for weaning greater L.A. from its historical reliance on imported sources of water," Rita Kampalath, the county's chief sustainability officer, said in a statement after the vote. "By investing in increased water recycling and runoff capture, we are investing in local systems that are more reliable, more resilient and less energy intensive." In conjunction with the plan, the board adopted a motion by Supervisor Lindsey Horvath outlining a series of steps aimed at meeting the plan's objectives -- in part by bolstering stormwater-capture efforts, recycling and other conservation strategies, with a goal of increasing the local water supply by 600,000 acre-feet by 2045. An acrefoot of water is generally considered enough to serve at least two households for an entire year. Horvath noted that despite historic rainfall in 2022-23, many of the area's groundwater basins of overtaxed, and access to safe water is threatened in some vulnerable communities. "Water is our most precious natural resource, especially as cycles of drought, wildfire, and flooding threaten our
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Morris Dam. | Photo courtesy of LA County Public Works / Facebook
region's water supply," Horvath -- who took over as chair of the Board of Supervisors Tuesday -- said in a statement. "The Los Angeles County Water Plan is the first comprehensive planning document that articulates a shared, inclusive, regional path forward to sustainably and equitably achieve safe, clean, and reliable water resources for all Los Angeles County residents. With this plan in place, we must work regionally to implement it and reduce our reliance on
imported water." Horvath's motion accompanying the water plan called for the creation of a local task force to coordinate water conservation and drought-preparedness efforts, convening of a Water Resiliency Summit with area water agencies and other stakeholders and creation of a panel to develop standards "for nature- based water management solutions." "This plan comes at a critical time for the Los Angeles County region,"
county Public Works Director Mark Pestrella said "Three years of drought followed by a year of intense rainfall along with other significant stressors -including polluted groundwater basins, aging infrastructure, and lack of access to safe, clean and reliable water supplies in vulnerable communities -- clearly demonstrate our region's vulnerability to the weather impacts driven by climate change and the urgent need to boost resilience."
felon was charged Monday with fatally shooting three homeless men in Los Angeles, along with the follow-home robbery and slaying of an L.A. County employee in San Dimas -- all within a four-day period. Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Kimberley Baker Guillemet ordered Jerrid Joseph Powell, 33, of Los Angeles, to be held without bail while awaiting arraignment Jan. 8 in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom on four counts of murder and one count each of residential robbery and felon with a firearm. The murder charges include the special circumstance allegations of multiple murders and murder during the commission of a robbery, along with gun use allegations. Powell could face life in prison without the possibility of parole if convicted as charged. Los Angeles Police Department Chief Michel Moore and Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said Saturday that authorities linked Powell to the fatal shootings of the three homeless men following his arrest in Beverly Hills last week in connection with the San Dimas killing. A handgun recovered from Powell's vehicle was used in the three homeless killings, the LAPD chief said. "Our detectives worked closely with sheriff's investigators and our forensics services overnight. The result of their work has positively identified the handgun recovered from Mr. Powell's car as being the murder weapon of our three homicides," he said. The sheriff said that Beverly Hills police conducted a traffic stop of Powell's vehicle, and that Powell was arrested early last Thursday. Luna said the vehicle was linked to Powell after the San Dimas killing, which occurred just before 7 p.m. Tuesday in the garage of a home in the 1800 block of Hawkbrook Drive. The first homeless killing occurred around 3 a.m. last Sunday in the 800 block of West 110th Street in the Westmont area near Watts, followed by another at about 5 a.m. last Monday in the 600 block of Mateo Street near downtown, and another at 2:30 a.m. Wednesday at South Avenue 18 and South Pasadena Avenue near Lincoln Heights, Moore said. "Each of the victims were in an open area, be it a sidewalk or alley, they were alone," Moore said previously. "We believe a single individual approached each one and shot and killed each one as they slept. The investigators have gathered physical evidence as well as video images and we've identified this possible male lone individual as well as a vehicle." According to the chief and the county medical examiner, the victim in the first shooting was Jose Bolanos, 37. Killed last Monday was 62-year-old Mark Diggs. The victim in Wednesday's shooting was 52-year-old Shawn Alvarez. Nicholas Simbolon, 42, who worked as a project manager See Killer Page 27