Key Water-Saving Role Belongs to Residential Users

Many of San Diego’s largest water users already substantially comply with new water conservation measures recommended by the county Water Authority last week, but the users say they are prepared to institute further cutbacks as part of the effort to wring 10% more water from the region’s endangered supply.

Nevertheless, officials say that the residential consumer will bear the primary responsibility for saving water through a conservation effort that, for the first time, would include mandatory restrictions on irrigation, filling pools and hosing down driveways.

Outside irrigation accounts for 35% to 50% of the 486 gallons used in a typical home each day, a figure that easily could be reduced by the desired 10% if consumers adopt a minimal conservation ethic, said Shirley Jackson, assistant general manager for the Water Authority.

The recommendations are “pretty well targeted at the residential user, and targeted at the outside use of the residential user, the landscaping use,” Jackson said. “By being water aware and water conscious, a tremendous amount of water could be retained.”

The Water Authority recommended an unprecedented water conservation plan for its 24 member agencies Thursday, including bans on washing cars, watering lawns or filling swimming pools during the daytime, and a total prohibition on hosing down sidewalks, driveways or tennis courts.

The authority’s goal is to reduce water consumption by 10% as California heads into its fourth consecutive year of drought. A 1987 program urging voluntary conservation produced only a 4% savings.

The recommendations will not take effect until the agencies, including the city of San Diego, the county’s largest water buyer, vote to impose them on their customers. The agencies could alter the time limits of such recommendations as the 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. lawn water schedule or develop their own irrigation schedule to replace the Water Authority’s odd-even recommendation.

The restrictions will mean adjustments for all water users, but large consumers say that they already have adopted many of the recommendations.

“We’re not doing that much more for Stage 2 (the new restrictions) than we’re already doing,” said George Loveland, director of the city’s Park and Recreation Department, which used 1.7 billion gallons of water last year, the vast majority of it to irrigate the city’s 9,000 acres of parkland and some city assessment districts.

“Water’s a big expense for us and a major concern for the city,” he said. The department spent $3.3 million on water last year.

San Diego State University, which sprays about 45% of its water supply on its grounds, “has already done a lot of the easy stuff,” said spokesman Rick Moore. “When you use this kind of water, you pay attention to it and we have for sometime.”

Both those agencies, identified along with the Navy, the San Diego Zoo, the San Diego Unified Port District, UC San Diego and Caltrans as among the area’s largest water users, already have switched most of their sprinkling operations to nighttime hours. Manual sprinklers, such as ones in Balboa Park, are used as early as possible to limit evaporation, Loveland said.

At the zoo, 60% of all watering is now done in pre-dawn hours, and much of the rest is drip irrigation, said Chuck Coburn, zoo horticulturist. Substantial amounts of mulch are used to retain moisture, he said. In 1981, the zoo embarked on a program of replacing vegetation requiring large amounts of water with drought-tolerant plants, he said.

Navy facilities, which consumed 4 billion gallons of city water during fiscal 1989, anticipated the restrictions by inaugurating a program of cutting water waste Feb. 2.

The bases instituted regular inspections of toilets, faucets and hoses for leaks; mandated installation of automatic shut-offs on all hose nozzles, began serving water in dining facilities only by request and ordered military personnel to use dishwashers and washing machines only with full loads.

Navy bases are attempting to water two to three hours before dawn, as little as twice a week, using automatic timers. The Navy also has a program to install low-flow shower heads and faucets in Navy housing.

Washing of concrete has been strictly forbidden and potable water is never used to wash ships, said John Thomas, director of the utilities management division of the Navy Public Works Center in San Diego.

Nevertheless, the Navy and other large users say that they probably can cut back water use another 10% by adopting more of the Water Authority restrictions if the city of San Diego imposes them, Thomas said.

“If there’s odd-even and the city wants us to do it, there would be no problem, “ Thomas said.

“I think we can save 10% in the zoo and outside the zoo in the community,” Coburn added. “I think we should be able to save every year.”

Loveland said that he already is preparing to divide Balboa and Mission Bay parks into sections to comply with an odd-even watering schedule, but has not yet figured out how to water areas that receive manual daytime watering. Inspectors are trying to keep the department’s thousands of miles of irrigation pipe and sprinkler heads repaired to prevent water waste.

“The number one way we save water is by making sure the irrigation system is in good repair,” Loveland said.

The Bea Evenson fountain along Balboa Park’s Prado and most other city fountains would not have to comply with the the ban on ornamental fountains because they recycle the same water over and over again, Jackson said.

Officials expect, however, that homeowners can produce a quick, substantial water savings by complying with the new recommendations. Single-family and multifamily homes together use 57% of the city of San Diego’s water supply and another 10% is used primarily to irrigate large non-residential projects, according to Marsi Steirer, the city’s water conservation program analyst. Even small cutbacks should add up.

“I think, to a large extent, Stage 2 is a promotion of awareness in all of our minds that we do have critical water shortage,” said Deputy City Manager Roger Frauenfelder, who oversees the city’s Water Utilities department. “There’s savings to be gained, I’m sure of that.”

Some San Diego City Council members have expressed reservations about mandatory restrictions that are part of a 12-point conservation plan that will be reviewed by the council April 26, but it is unclear whether many are willing to vote against the plan. Councilwoman Judy McCarty said that she has doubts about a mandatory system, and mayoral spokesman Paul Downey said that Mayor Maureen O’Connor generally favors voluntary water conservation measures.

“I’m very concerned with the (Water Authority) and our city staff and the fact that they’re looking at very restrictive measures and not the overall issue of water conservation,” said Councilwoman Linda Bernhardt, who wants more emphasis on installation of low-flow appliances inside homes.

Councilman Ron Roberts, who said that he favors the restrictions, opposes a plan to hire monitors to police citizen use of water.

“I don’t want people going into a person’s back yard to see what they’re doing,” Roberts said. “I think it’s one thing to have something that’s flowing down the street, but I don’t think we want to put a group of spies in people’s yards.”

Public officials say that they have received little protest so far over imposition of the restrictions.

“We’ve heard from some individual citizens who complain that it’s their right to use and waste any amount of water they want,” said Jim Melton, director of public affairs for the Water Authority. The callers contend that “if they’re willing to pay the bill, it’s up to them.”