Residents and businesses in Beverly Hills this week were asked to cut back their water use – including eliminating all outdoor watering – as emergency repairs are made to a leak in a main water delivery pipeline serving the city. Repairing the leak, detected in Metropolitan Water District's Santa Monica Feeder, requires the pipeline to be entirely shut down through the weekend. Read the press release.

The Advanced Purification Center is a demonstration facility that uses both tried and tested technologies and innovative processes to purify wastewater for potential reuse. At the center of the purification process is reverse osmosis, a water treatment technology that has been implemented around the world for decades. In reverse osmosis, water flows through pressurized membranes that remove microscopic materials such as bacteria, salts and pharmaceuticals. Pre-testing of this equipment will begin in early 2019. Learn more at mwdh2o.com/RRWP.

Earlier this month, Metropolitan Board Chairman Randy Record presided over his final board meeting. Record, a representative from Eastern Municipal Water District, was chairman of the board for five years, from 2014-2018. View a tribute.

Gov. Jerry Brown's administration is working on regulatory and voluntary ways to improve stream conditions for fish and wildlife in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Proposed voluntary settlement agreements to enhance the flows and habitat restoration in the watersheds was recently presented before the State Water Resources Control Board. "This package of enhanced flows, habitat restoration and funding presents a historic opportunity for the Board to successfully update its Bay Delta Water Quality Control Plan," said Metropolitan General Manager Jeff Kightlinger. Read his full statement.

Metropolitan is increasing its rebate for high-efficiency toilets installed in qualifying apartments, with the goal of replacing 10,000 toilets and significantly increasing water conservation in the region's disadvantaged communities. Metropolitan’s Board of Directors earlier this month approved $3 million for an 18-month pilot program to boost the rebate from $40 to $250 for high-efficiency models. The board also approved an additional $1.5 million in funding for member agencies to develop local programs aimed at sparking water savings in low-income communities. Read the press release.