Water Use Up 27% by O.C. Government

At a time when Orange County supervisors are asking residents and cities to cut water use by 10% in the face of a statewide drought, county government has seen its own consumption sharply increase over the past nine months, according to records obtained Monday.

Year-to-date totals compiled by the General Services Agency show that county water use for the first nine months of the current fiscal year was 45.8-million cubic feet, up from 35.9-million during the same period last year.

That information--contained in a monthly statistical review of utility expenses--suggests that, at least for this fiscal year, county officials are unlikely to meet the same conservation goals they are asking others to achieve.

The county’s water use equates to more than 342 million gallons this year, contrasted with about 268 million last year, representing a 27% jump in what is the fourth year of a dire statewide water shortage.

Most of the increase, officials said, is the result of new county facilities, among them an expanded communications center, new fire stations and other new operations. Weather through the first nine months of the fiscal year has also been hotter and drier than it was last year.

“It’s discouraging,” said Scotty Stewart, the county’s chief of facility environmental systems. “We put on some additional square footage in the last year, and that stuff can nickel and dime you to death. It all adds up.”

The county employs about 15,000 workers who are spread out in more than 150 buildings, from high-rise offices to fire stations, jails and public libraries. But while much of the increased water use is the result of added space, some areas of the government are simply using more water. The civic center grounds in Santa Ana have soaked up more than 70,000 gallons of extra water this year, and the John Wayne Airport terminal has used 653,000 additional gallons in the current fiscal year, at least in part because of construction work there, Stewart said.

And at the Hall of Administration, where the supervisors have their offices and where there’s been no expansion in the current year, water usage is up 7,862 cubic feet--or 58,807 gallons. That’s a 6% increase for the building.

Supervisor Harriett M. Wieder, regarded as the board’s most outspoken proponent of water conservation, last week urged her colleagues to update a 1988 water conservation resolution that asks all county residents to cut back their own water use by 10%. The board voted unanimously in favor of those voluntary reductions.

Neither Wieder nor several other supervisors were available for comment Monday.

In the resolution, the board urged “every householder, farmer, businessperson and governmental entity in the county to reduce their water use by 10%.” Monday, however, officials acknowledged that growth may make it impossible for the county government to meet that target this year.

R.A. Scott, director of the General Services Agency, called a 10% reduction in the county’s consumption rate “a reasonable goal” but added that it may be hard to achieve an overall water savings because the county is quickly adding new facilities.

“I think what we can do is give it a good shot on the square footage basis, but overall it’s going to be tough,” Stewart said. “We’re committed to saving everything we can. I don’t know if that’s going to come to 10%.”

Officials from the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, who had urged the supervisors to adopt the voluntary restrictions, acknowledged Monday that weather and growth will make the 10% reduction a difficult goal in some areas. But they reiterated their call to conserve, despite the challenges.

“It’s just going to make it more incumbent on people to try a little harder,” said Tim Skrove, a spokesman for the district.