Rainy Weather Spurs Review of Water Crisis : Drought: San Diego County Water Authority considers easing conservation goal from 20% to 10%.

Record rains and the feeling that the worst of California’s drought might be over prompted the San Diego County Water Authority on Tuesday to consider reducing the region’s water conservation goal from 20% to 10%.

The authority’s board of directors will vote on the lower target at its monthly meeting Thursday. But, at the same time that officials from Sacramento to San Diego reported optimistic news, others sounded warnings about the long term.

Deputy City Manager Roger Frauenfelder said he is fearful that stories about the drought being over could threaten recent hard-fought strides in conservation.

“We made such inroads in changing the mind-set of the average citizen to recognize the importance of conservation that it seems like a shame to quite hastily say, ‘Well, the drought’s over,’ and then we slip back into the old ways,” Frauenfelder said.

Ben G. Clay, legislative representative for the San Diego County Water Authority, said that, despite the easing of a crisis that mandated harsh measures a year ago, the region’s biggest problem remains “being at the southern end of a very long chain.”

Better-than-average rainfall cannot wash away that long-term concern, Clay said.

He said the county’s “biggest dilemma is being able to capture and then store large amounts of water.” Only 8% to 10% of the county’s water is derived locally, from reservoirs that collect runoff from rainwater.

And, unfortunately, Clay said, most of the major reservoirs are in the southern part of the county and not the booming North County area, which remains one of the fastest-growing regions in the country.

“Oceanside and surrounding areas are just living off a pipeline,” Clay said. “They have about a 48-hour supply if the thing ever breaks, and that’s it.”

Oceanside and other cities are fed by a pipeline coming down from Lake Skinner, near Riverside, and along the Interstate 15 corridor. A five-pipe feeder system then allocates the water throughout North County.

Clay said conservation has been a “huge help” in San Diego County, where the use of ultra low-flow toilets and drought planning and landscaping helped ease the region’s water woes.

Paul Downey, a spokesman for San Diego Mayor Maureen O’Connor, said Tuesday that, since March 1, 1991, San Diegans had saved 22 billion gallons of water, making its conservation efforts among the most effective in the state.

“When you figure in our 27% for overall savings, I would have to say we have done a tremendous job,” Downey said. “If not for that level of conservation, we would still have a major water problem, even with the amount of rain so far.

“People still need to conserve--they need to make major changes in the way they use water. But all the indications are that we can live with a reduction in the conservation level to 10%.”

Consumers should still wash only full loads in dishwashers and washing machines, Downey said, but such Draconian measures as “sticking buckets under shower heads may now be going too far.”

In San Diego County, the ultra low-flush toilet rebate program instituted last year is expected to save 15,503 acre-feet of water over the next decade, a spokeswoman for the water authority said Tuesday.

She said the program has completed 27,230 “toilet retrofits.” A similar program carried out by the city has refitted about 10,000 toilets.

In Phase 1 of the shower-head program carried out with San Diego Gas & Electric, county officials expect a savings of 935 acre-feet of water based on 13,700 retrofits. A second phase has targeted 40,300 households for a total savings of 4,515 acre-feet of water.

Frauenfelder, the deputy city manager, said such measures are necessary in an area where, even with record rains, long-term water needs are a subject of ever-increasing concern.

“Droughts come and go--we have one every 10 years or so--but I’m afraid that, during all the times ahead of us, we will have water shortages, drought or no drought,” Frauenfelder said. “Unless there is some super technological breakthrough, the demand for water--at least in this region--will continue to grow.”

Frauenfelder said one of the region’s pressing needs is an increase in storage capacity in North County, “where the various agencies are trying to develop it.”

Clay, the county water official, said the region is exercising other conservation measures, even with the crisis passing.

“We’re doing other things to take some of the long-term pressure off,” he said. “We’re heavy into reclamation. With San Diego Gas & Electric, we’re investigating desalination plants in the South Bay. We’re exploring new ground-water cleanup projects, and we’re continuing to conserve.”

But Milon Mills, water utilities director for the city of San Diego, said recent weather, including rainfall that in early March gave the county more than its annual average, is reason for optimism.

“We’re anticipating water deliveries 75% greater than what we got last year,” Mills said. “We saved almost 30% in San Diego County, compared to an average of 19% for Southern California as a whole.

“My hope is that we’re getting back to some normal weather patterns. If we are getting back to normal patterns, then it’s probably safe to go with 10% (as a water conservation goal).

“We have adequate reserves of water in San Diego, and in the central and southern parts of the county. But when you go north of Clairemont Mesa Boulevard, the county is not in the greatest shape. That’s a long-term concern. That’s why the county is intently studying storage of water in North County.

“Right now, that’s our biggest long-term concern.”