Tough Curbs on Water Use Urged in San Diego County

The San Diego County Water Authority voted unanimously Thursday to ask its 24 member agencies to enact mandatory water-reduction measures.

In an unprecedented effort to tighten the taps while facing a drought that has parched the state, the authority’s board of directors recommended prohibiting residents from washing cars, watering lawns or filling swimming pools during the daytime, restaurants from serving water to customers except when requested, and homeowners from washing down sidewalks, driveways or tennis courts at any time.

The authority’s action is a recommendation to the 24 individual governments and water boards in the county, which now must independently decide whether to follow through with the restrictions that officials hope will achieve a 10% savings in water use.

Authority officials said they believe most of the member agencies will adopt the water-saving measures, which would be mandatory after the failure of a voluntary program in 1987.

“I doubt any will go against (the recommendations),” said Byron M. Buck, director of the authority’s Water Resources Planning Division. “This shouldn’t have any lifestyle impact--we’re just asking people to cut wasteful use.”

Before the San Diego panel voted, officials of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, which supplies water to Los Angeles and Southern California, urged the authority to adopt the tough measures.

“We don’t have a secure water supply,” said Carl Boronkay, MWD general manager. “What is needed is a comprehensive statewide policy.”

The Metropolitan Water District supplies water from Oxnard to the Mexican border. Among the 130 cities in its region, only about 10 have adopted ordinances similar to the San Diego proposal, MWD spokesman Jay Malinowski said.

“We are hoping all cities will respond in a fashion similar to San Diego,” he said. “Virtually every city south of Sacramento should be adopting such ordinances, if they haven’t already.”

The restrictions supported by San Diego’s water authority resemble an ordinance passed last year by the Los Angeles City Council. That ordinance also prohibited hosing down hard surfaces such as driveways; serving water in restaurants unless requested, and allowing irrigation water to run off into gutters, Malinowski said.

But the San Diego proposal goes further than the Los Angeles ordinance in that it restricts the watering of residential lawns, he said.

About 50 of California’s 58 counties have instituted some kind of water restrictions, said Dean Thompson, a spokesman with the Department of Water Resources’ Drought Center in Sacramento.

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