Drought-stricken Southern California is home to some of the country’s most famous celebrities, who also appear to be the state’s worst water hogs.
That’s according to a report released Monday by the Los Angeles Times, which listed Kim and Kourtney Kardashian, Sylvester Stallone and Kevin Hart among 2,000 Las Virgenes Municipal Water District customers who exceeded their monthly water budgets at least four times in the last year.
One of the worst offenders is former NBA superstar and Utah Jazz part-owner Dwyane Wade, who in May used a whopping 489,000 gallons more than his water budget allowed, according to records obtained by the Times.
That’s more than any other customer in the Southern California water district, which serves communities in western Los Angeles County.
By comparison, 489,000 gallons is enough water to cover three Utah homes for an entire year, or 20 Utah homes for a single month.
Wade and his wife, actor Gabrielle Union, used markedly less water in June — still, the couple went 1,400% above their budget, amounting to 90,000 excess gallons.
In a statement to the Times, the couple says a problem with their swimming pool led to the waste, and have since “taken drastic steps to reduce water usage in accordance with the new city guidelines and have since we moved into our home.”
“We have been doing everything we can to rectify the situation and will continue to go to extensive lengths to resolve the issue,” the statement to the Times reads. “We have replaced all parts of our pool system that (have) to do with water flow and leakage in addition to converting to synthetic grass and drought tolerant plants to reduce our water usage. We will continue to work with the city and the water distribution company to make sure this isn’t an issue moving forward.”
According to the luxury real estate news source House of Celebs, Wade and Union live in an $18 million property in Hidden Hills next to reality star Kylie Jenner.
Wade and Union, and the rest of the 2,000 Las Virgenes customers, were issued “notices of exceedance” for going beyond 150% of their allotted water at least four times since a drought emergency was issued last year.
In June, Hart went 117,000 gallons, or 519%, beyond his budget — meanwhile two properties owned by Kim Kardashian wasted 232,000 gallons. Her sister, Kourtney Kardashian, surpassed her budget by 101,000 gallons that month.
And Stallone and his wife, model Jennifer Flavin, used over 530% of their budget in June, according to the Times, amounting to 230,000 gallons. In a statement to the Times, the actor’s attorney says without the current water use, a number of trees on their property risked dying, then falling.
“They have more than 500 mature trees on the property, including innumerable fruit trees as well as pine trees. Absent adequate watering, in all likelihood they would die. That could result in dead or damaged trees falling on my client’s property or neighboring properties,” the statement read, adding that the numbers “mischaracterize and misrepresent the situation regarding the water usage at my client’s property.”
The properties are now subjected to a flow restrictor device, which can completely cut off outdoor watering, and reduce the water delivery to the homes to a trickle.
Since June 1, the Las Virgenes Municipal Water District has been installing the devices.
Beginning in May, the district called for a 50% reduction in outdoor water budgets for all of its 22,000 customers.
“This is basically a deterrent for consistent water wasters within our service area,” Mike McNutt, spokesman for the district, told the Deseret News in June.
“We provide them ample opportunities to work with us before it gets installed. We send letters, emails, put on door tags, even voicemails and text messages,” he said. “Literally every possible thing that you can think of to let them know that they need to contact the district to work with us to start reducing their water consumption. If they don’t do that, after all that stuff, then we’ll go ahead and install them as a last ditch effort. We are really serious about this.”
The water glistens in the sunlight at the Las Virgenes Municipal Water District’s reservoir in Westlake Village, California, on Wednesday, Jan. 5, 2022. The Las Virgenes Municipal Water District’s approach is one example of how water districts are pushing Californians to save as the drought continues despite a wet start to winter. Las Virgenes is installing a new metering system that gives people a real-time look at their water use. It’s also lowering the threshold for penalizing wasters and threatening to restrict the flow of water for households that don’t get their water use back under control.
Jae C. Hong, Associated Press