MWD Warns Southland Cities to Limit Water Use

Confronted with the fourth consecutive year of drought, officials of Southern California’s largest water agency are calling for mandatory water conservation measures in Los Angeles and more than 300 communities stretching from San Diego County to Ventura County.

The giant Metropolitan Water District, projecting that supplies could fall short of demand by up to 12% in the coming year, is urging its member communities to adopt ordinances to restrict water consumption. The agency also warned that mandatory water rationing may be necessary if the situation does not improve in 1991.

A MWD shortfall would have an impact in San Diego County because the MWD supplies 90% of the water that the San Diego County Water Authority distributes to its 24 member agencies, including the city of San Diego. The remaining 10% comes from local reservoirs.

In San Diego County, only Ramona, which faces a severe water shortage, has instituted mandatory conservation. Other agencies have requested voluntary cutbacks.

“There is a possibility that (Southern California) could experience shortages . . . even with normal precipitation for the rest of the year,” said Carl Boronkay, general manager of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, which supplies more than 500 billion gallons of water a year to the 13 million residents of its six-county service area.

“If (the shortage) is as serious as I think it is, then it’s time we got serious” and begin mandatory programs to cut usage, he said.

Boronkay said communities need to install water-saving measures such as bans on hosing down driveways, watering lawns during daylight hours, washing cars and serving water in restaurants without a customer request.

“I’m not aware of there ever being mandatory restrictions in San Diego County,” said Bill Jacoby, a water resources specialist with the county water authority. “I can’t ever remember anything like that in Southern California.”

San Diego County’s municipal governments are largely in compliance with the MWD’s call for drought ordinances, Jacoby said Tuesday. Sixteen of the county water authority’s 24 member agencies, including most of the urban agencies, have ordinances on the books. And, many have incorporated a “model” ordinance developed last year by the water authority.

With California’s winter rainy season just about over, snowpack levels are running at less than 63% of normal, and river runoff is down to 35% of normal, according to engineers with the state’s Cooperative Snow Survey.

The low precipitation, coupled with cutbacks in California’s share of Colorado River water, are projected to reduce the flow of water to the MWD by about 300,000 acre-feet--or roughly the amount of water used annually by 700,000 households.

Some water officials fear that conservation efforts may not reduce usage sufficiently to avert more severe measures.

“We’re on the borderline of mandatory rationing,” said Dennis Williams, engineer with the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, which now receives about half of its water from MWD. “The city of Los Angeles could very well have mandatory rationing,” he said in an interview.

Last year, the San Diego County Water Authority asked member water agencies in San Diego’s urban areas to incorporate a model four-step ordinance that ranges from relatively minor--water lawns and filling swimming pools at night--to a drastic prohibition on using water for anything other than basic health and sanitation needs.

Elsewhere in California, a number of cities, counties and agricultural districts have resorted to rationing.

Monterey is holding consumers to 80% of their past consumption rate, and Santa Clara County has rationed water at 75% of normal. The Central Valley Water Project has cut the flow of water to its largely agricultural district by up to 50%.

Hard-hit El Dorado County has placed a moratorium on new water connections.

Southern California water districts have not yet resorted to such tactics, but most local agencies are drawing upon their so-called “carry-over storage” from previous years.

MWD spokesman Jay Malinowsky said that “is like withdrawing money from the bank. It’s water put away for next year. It’s betting that we’ll get rain by the end of this year.”

The likelihood of significant snow or rain during the rest of the season is slim, state officials said.

“It wouldn’t surprise me if MWD cuts back,” Jacoby said. “Cuts had to occur sooner or later, it just turned out to be sooner.”

Sierra runoff fell to 63% of normal in 1987. It was 60% of normal in 1988 and 64% last year. This year, runoff was 63% through March 1--but officials say it will probably decline later this spring because snowfall has been light in March, the last month of the rainy season.

The MWD, which operates aqueducts from the Colorado River and Northern California, acts as a wholesaler of water to smaller local water districts. Twenty-seven local water agencies use MWD to supplement their other sources of water. As the drought continued, many of these agencies have increasingly relied on MWD to make up for their own water deficits.

In the past year, Los Angeles’ Department of Water and Power has increased by fourfold its purchases from the MWD.

Los Angeles’ growing demand for MWD water “means cutbacks in the water that’s available for (San Diego County),” Jacoby said.

As its purchases increased, the DWP began a voluntary conservation program that encourages customers to use a variety of measures, including flow restricters on showers.

Similarly, the San Diego County Water Authority last year initiated a water conservation program that was “designed to get the county’s per capita consumption to level off,” Jacoby said. “Since the 1970s per capita consumption has been on an almost steady incline.”

In recent years, “demand has leveled off” at about 190 gallons per capita, of which about 100 gallons is used at home,” Jacoby said. During the year ended July 31, 1988, San Diegans used 580,152 acre-feet of water. An acre foot is 326,000 gallons.

Last year, the water authority asked member water agencies in San Diego’s urban areas to replace existing ordinances with a four-level ordinance that ranges from voluntary conservation measures to a drastic prohibition on using water for anything other than basic health and sanitation needs.

“We can’t enforce conservation ordinances, and neither can MDW,” Jacoby said. “But we can ask our member agencies to adopt ordinances.” Consequently, when MWD and CWA determine that a shortage is likely, individual city councils and town governments would have to put the measures in force.

GRAND JURY REPORT--Water conservation and reclamation are urgently needed in San Diego County, the grand jury says. B4