Water Panel Says Drought Dictates Cut in Grower Supply

Reacting to the drought, a committee of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California on Monday endorsed a proposal that would cut water supplies next year to growers in Orange County and other Southland areas.

The action of the Water Problems Committee is expected to be approved today by the full board of the district, which supplies water from the Colorado River and the State Water Project to districts in Orange, Los Angeles, San Diego, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura counties.

In Orange County, $245 million worth of crops were grown last year, according to county statistics. The largest category was nursery plants and cut flowers, totaling $126.2 million.

Under the proposal, the district could reduce or cut off supplies of water for agricultural uses in 1989 if there is not enough water for the district’s priority customers: residences, industry, commercial developments and other urban users.

Representatives of the Municipal Water District of Orange County, the San Diego Water Authority and the Western Municipal Water District of Riverside County all praised the proposal as necessary to prepare for more drought.

But Orange County growers and water managers asked that their past steps to conserve water be considered. Dean E. Buchinger, vice president of agriculture for the Irvine Co., told the committee that during the last 10 years, county growers have switched to sprinklers and drip irrigation, which use much less water than traditional methods.

He said cutting back water supplies more would cause “irretrievable” damage to “long-range crops” such as citrus and avocado orchards and cause unemployment.

Lynn Strohsahl of Bordier’s Nursery Inc. in Irvine, who is president of the Nursery Growers’ Assn. of California, pleaded for special consideration for the county.

How water is apportioned should be decided by local water districts, he said. “Orange County agriculture consumes only 10% (of local water supplies) while domestic and industrial use is 90%,” he said, so cutting back agriculture would not produce large savings.

Roland Young, general manager of the Irvine Ranch Water District, told the committee that a quarter of the water it supplies to growers is reclaimed from waste water. He said his district and others reclaiming water should be given special consideration should cutbacks be necessary.

Carl Boronkay, MWD’s general manager, said the committee’s strong action emphasized the severity of the drought, which is reducing Southern California water supplies from Northern California mountains.

He also said the vote shows how much population growth has increased the Southland’s water supply problem since the last drought in 1976-77, when the district met a water shortage with a voluntary reduction program.

That year, the district provided 1.4 million acre-feet of water. This year, it expects to pump about 2 million acre-feet. (An acre-foot is about enough water to supply two households for a year.)

Since the 1970s, the district’s water supply has been threatened by contamination of huge underground reservoirs in Riverside and San Bernardino counties, Boronkay said.

A continued drought in Northern California may force the MWD to share its Northern California water with San Francisco Bay Area cities, as it did in the ‘70s drought, said Boronkay.

In the 1970s, he said, an agricultural limit “would have been more controversial than it was today. People are now sensitive that we are selling more and more water, and supplies are limited.”