San Francisco-Area Water Agency Imposes User Curbs

Faced with the worst dry spell in a dozen years, this region’s biggest water agency imposed a deluge of water restrictions Thursday, ordering restaurants to stop serving water, fountains shut off, and people to let their lawns turn brown.

After a three-hour hearing, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, which supplies water to 2 million customers in San Francisco and 30 suburban water districts, unanimously ordered a 25% cut in water usage starting Sunday. The water--133 million gallons a year--comes from Sierra reservoirs.

Restrictions Decried

The plan was decried by flower growers in coastal Half Moon Bay, Silicon Valley companies that need the water to make computer chips, and residents who said they cannot reduce usage further because they never stopped conserving water after the severe drought of 1976 and 1977.

In San Francisco, customers will be prohibited from washing down sidewalks, driveways, patios or gutters. There must be shut-off valves on hoses used for washing cars, no water can be used for decorative fountains and the use of water for irrigation of lawns, parks and cemeteries will be severely restricted.

Residents who are caught ignoring the regulations will get a warning and then could have their water shut off or have the city charge them to install devices that will restrict water usage.

The cost of implementing and enforcing the plan will be more than $1 million, an amount that will be paid for by higher charges.

The commission left it to suburban water districts to impose their own cuts to compensate for the 25% reduction in water.

“This is more of a reduction than is needed,” said Ray McDevitt, a lawyer representing the suburban districts. He maintained that the cuts fall more heavily on suburban users whose home lots are larger than in densely populated San Francisco.

McDevitt charged that the city is wasting drinking water by generating power at a series of power plants along the Hetch Hetchy reservoir system in Yosemite National Park. San Francisco, which faces a deficit of $176 million, sells the electricity for $30 million, or more, a year. City officials maintain that the plant operations do not result in a loss of drinking water.

Noting Sierra runoff will be well below normal this year, a report by the San Francisco Public Utility Commission staff said: “Snowpack conditions are among the worst recorded and water supply situation is critical.” The report said that if water usage remains at 1987 levels and the drought continues, all water storage will be gone within two years.

‘We’re Concerned’

The report predicted that there will be no lay-offs as a result of the rationing. Spokesmen from a sampling of companies that use large amounts of water said they will simply dust off conservation and recycling plans from the last drought.

“We’re concerned,” said Gordon MacDermott, vice president and general manager of Anchor Brewing Co., which produces 44,000 barrels a year of Anchor Steam beer. “We’re in the business of selling water, very good water.”

The public utility commissioners rejected the most controversial aspect of the plan--a staff proposal that they shut off 7 million gallons of water a day sold to the cities of San Jose and Santa Clara.

Officials said without the water, they would have to pump more from ground wells, which would cause ground to sink in parts of the cities.

Additionally, Silicon Valley users say they need the unusually pure water from the San Francisco-owned Hetch Hetchy Reservoir in Yosemite National Park to make silicon chips.

“We’re not going to cut your water off,” Chairman H. Welton Flynn told a Silicon Valley executive who said the loss of the water might force the company to shut down temporarily.