The county administration complex on San Diego’s downtown waterfront has been using 1.3 million more gallons of water per month since a popular new park and splashy water feature went in.
The $50 million park has been in the works since well before the drought but opened in May, as conservation calls by state and city water officials became louder.
Water-billing records obtained by U-T Watchdog show that the year-to-year jump started in the April 2014 billing period, when water usage grew by more than a million gallons.
The usage varied, but the biggest year-to-year increase was 2.3 million gallons in May.
Daniel Luzer is GOVERNING's news editor.