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Confessions and manipulations of Nahai, the water-waster

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 27, 2008 at 6:51 am

From the Los Angeles Daily News, this editorial:

Auditors of the spacious spread owned by H. David Nahai on Beverly Hills-adjacent Deep Canyon Drive found that the general manager of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power is one of those very water-wasters that the city is, under his own leadership, cracking down on.

In fact, Nahai’s lawn is so overwatered by sprinklers that it’s sitting in a foot of subsurface moisture.

Those were the revelations that Nahai made to the Daily News in a story this week. In that story, Nahai acted contrite - and seemed ready to take action to trim his average $232 monthly water bill.

It was embarrassing for Nahai, to be sure. And it reinforced the belief by many that Los Angeles’ leaders regularly engage in hypocrisy. Here was the man scolding Angelenos for using too much water caught in the wasteful act himself.

But shouldn’t Nahai be forgiven for generously opening his home and his water usage to the public - a commitment to model good conservationist behavior? Certainly, if that were the whole story.

Yes, apparently annoyed by a reporter (Alan Mittelstaedt) who was pestering him to release his water bills, pursuant to legal requirements, Nahai decided to take his water bills to another reporter instead. It also tends to show that Nahai only did the right thing only after being exposed as a water waster. But that’s not the only issue, says this editorial:

Besides, the real problem is not so much that Nahai runs a wasteful home, but that he runs a wasteful utility. If Nahai is willing to sidestep legitimate requests for information and manipulate the public on a simple question of his water bill, imagine what he might do to sidestep legitimate requests on the DWP’s proposed expansion, future rate increases and capital improvement construction.

Read the full text of this editorial from the Los Angeles Daily News by clicking here.

David over at Westchester Kids charts Nahai’s use against other city council members:

The average per person water consumption of LADWP customers is 56,576 gallons per year or 163,000 gallons for the average 3 person household.

* H. David Nahai (DWP General Manager) - 434,220
(a staggering 310% times more than my household!!)
* Rocky Delgadillo (City attorney) - 423,368 gallons
* Mayor Villaraigosa - 386,716 gallons
* Jack Weiss - 254,320 gallons
* Bill Rosendahl - 230,384 gallons
* Tony Cardenas - 219,912 gallons
* Greig Smith - 219,164 gallons
* Dennis Zine - 194,480 gallons
* Wendy Gruel - 190,740 gallons
* Jose Huizar - 142,120 gallons
* Eric Garcetti - 88,264 gallons
* Janice Hahn - 83,776 gallons
* Bernard Parks - 35,156 gallons
Mayor Villaraigosa should be happy to hear that once Nahai goes through the twelve step program gets his water use under control, the mayor and his planning commissioners will be able to entitle that water to downtown developers for another 8 housing units and keep us trapped in a cycle of perpetual water shortages.

More from Westchester Kids blog by clicking here.

June 27, 2008 · Filed Under LA DWP

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