250 Customers Out of 600,000 Used 18% of L.A.’s Water : Conservation: Consumption habits of big businesses will make it difficult to comply with the mayor’s drought-emergency call for a 10% cut in usage.

A small group of companies and public agencies are consuming nearly 20% of all the water in Los Angeles and despite calls for conservation, their use is steadily increasing, according to figures complied by the Department of Water and Power.

The 250 largest water users in the city--from beer maker Anheuser Busch to tuna packer Star-Kist Foods and the state highway agency Caltrans--accounted for 18% of the water used during 1989, DWP figures show.

Despite the large use of water by these companies and agencies--out of the more than 600,000 customers of the DWP--there has been little oversight of their consumption and experts see little chance that they can quickly respond to a drought emergency and Mayor Tom Bradley’s call for an immediate 10% cut in usage.

Because of their size, conservation goes a long way at the largest institutions.

A 10% cut in use by Unocal--the largest private sector user of water according to DWP figures--could provide enough water for about 1,300 families for a full year.

But early attempts to monitor use at the big users achieved poor results.

A 1988 Los Angeles city ordinance required an audit of the 250 largest water consumers to determine how much they use, how they use it and how much they expect to use in the future. But to date, 160 of them have responded to the request for information and the DWP has abandoned efforts to seek the cooperation of the remaining 90.

Among the huge enterprises that failed to comply with the audit are Los Angeles County, the fifth largest user; UCLA, No. 7 on the list; Caltrans, 8th; USC, 13th; and the real estate firm of Park La Brea Management, the 16th-largest user of water in the city.

Also failing to comply with the ordinance is the Times Mirror Corp., publisher of the Los Angeles Times and the 65th-largest user; the Church of Scientology, 73rd; the Los Angeles Dodgers, 84th, and convicted slumlord Vijaynand Sharma, the 231st-largest user of water.

Some companies, like Times Mirror, said they were unaware of any audit request. Others, like the Dodgers, said they believe they had complied with all requests. Times Mirror cut its water use by 8.4% from 1988 to 1989 and the Dodgers cut its use of water by about 0.5% in the same period. Sharma’s water use fell 45% as many of his properties were sold off or shut down.

Others were more hard-pressed to explain why they were not among the audited.

One file missing from the unmarked cabinet that houses the audits is a report on 25th-largest user of all: the Department of Water and Power.

“I have a feeling that an audit, per se, was not done,” said Henry Venegas, a DWP assistant manager who oversees the audit and conservation efforts. Venegas said he was sure some study of usage at DWP facilities had been conducted, but on Friday was unable to find any such study.

The data that has been received is largely incomplete and some users’ estimates on future consumption were found to be drastically off within a year of the audit, The Times found in a review of the audits.

Star-Kist predicted that its use of water would rise only 20% between 1988 and 1989, but it actually jumped 61%.

Regardless of the quantity or quality of the information in the audits, the water agency has made little effort to study or compile data on big users.

The sole use of the information by the DWP to date has been to identify eight firms with “exceptional water conservation programs” for an awards presentation last May, Venegas said. Otherwise, the files have sat unused.

Now, with California in the fourth year of a drought, Venegas acknowledged that things have changed and that it is time to reach the 90 companies that have not cooperated and find out how much water they are consuming.

But reducing overall water use at big businesses can be difficult.

“It would be awful hard for us,” said Jim Kyle, supervising engineer at Unocal’s giant Wilmington refinery. “We’ve been watching our (conservation) ‘Ps’ and ‘Qs’ all along, there’s not much else to take away,” he said. Unocal recycles water in its refining process and has recently sunk a well to use brackish ground water in an effort to cut use of DWP water.

Still, Kyle said, Unocal could probably not meet the mayor’s demand for a 10% cut without also cutting production.

The Westin-Bonaventure Hotel, the 67th largest water user, which was honored by the DWP last year for its record in conserving water, also said it is at the limit of cutting water use. The downtown hotel said it has reduced its water use by 21% in recent years by recycling water in its laundry operation and cooling towers and by installing low-flush toilets and low-flow showerheads.

Any more reductions, the hotel said, and “it will affect our guests’ comfort.”

Other users say the ups and downs of their consumption are largely beyond their control.

Forest Lawn Memorial Park, the 29th largest user, said 99% of its use is in irrigation, and that largely depends on the weather. The cemetery operator said it uses “soil probes” and other high-tech gadgets to assure that it is using as small amount of water as possible. Its landscape supervisors belong to the California Turf Grass Council, whose mission is to conserve water while growing fine, green grass, the cemetery said.

Still, Forest Lawn’s water use went up by 3% from 1988 to 1989, representing enough water to serve 203 families for a year.

Some businesses have even less control of water use.

Operators of the First Interstate Bank tower in downtown Los Angeles reported in their 1988 audit that “our water consumption significantly increased due to the recent fire.” The high-rise tower was nearly lost in a May, 1988, fire that gutted six floors before firefighters brought it under control.

Anheuser Busch, the nation’s largest brewer, clearly takes its water use seriously. In its 1988 audit, Anheuser officials wrote: “Our water and sewer meters are read daily, compiled daily and compared with forecasted usage. . . . Variances are reported and must be explained.”

In the last 10 years, the brewer doubled its use of water, but tripled its production of beer. Officials said their efficiency has improved by 60% since 1971.

Water is getting expensive and getting rid of it is even more expensive.

For instance, Hughes Aircraft Co., the 48th largest user, spends nearly five times more on sewer charges than on its water.

So business has an incentive to cut its use as much as possible.

Benedykt Dziegielewski, a geography professor at Southern Illinois University and a consultant on water use to the Metropolitan Water District, said some of the greatest gains in business conservation have already been achieved, particularly in heavy industries like local aircraft and defense firms. But there are trends in business that will help conserve water, he added.

High-tech electronics firms, for example, are starting out with stringent conservation efforts because their need for expensive “de-ionized” water gives them a great incentive to conserve, he said.

New office buildings will also have to meet the latest building codes, which incorporate low-flush toilets and low-flow bathroom fixtures.

Dziegielewski said that in the short term, many businesses will not be able to reduce water consumption by the levels recommended by Bradley and other local politicians.

“In a drought,” the professor said, “some success could be achieved, but 10% is a bit steep.”

Venegas of the DWP said the only sure way to cut water use in Los Angeles “is to put a fence around the city and keep people out.”

WATER USE IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

A breakdown in percentage of water use by clients of the Metropolitan Water District: Single family homes: 34.4% Apartments: 25% Commercial: 18.8% Government: 5.1% Industrial: 6% Irrigation: 1.5% Unaccounted: 9.2%

The leading commerical and institutional uses of MWD water: Schools: 15.01% Hospitals: 13.2 Hotels/Motels: 11.1 Amusement/Recreation: 9.5 Colleges/Universities: 7.68 Nursing Homes: 4/75 Restaurants: 4.4 Public Administrations: 4.36 Laundries: 4.16 Real Estate Developments: 3.93 Note: Other commerical and industrial users make up 21.9% of total.

The leading manufacturing users of MWD water: Electronics: 10.84% Aircraft: 9.72 Petroleum refining: 8.29 Preserved fruits: 6.61 Beverages: 6.23 Paper mills: 5.12 Guided missiles: 4.87 Communication: 4.15 Textile finishing: 2.55 Metal products: 2.27 Office/Computing eq.: 2.17 Ships/Boats: 2.1 Dairy: 1.85 Note: other manufacturing users make up 33.23% of total.

Source: Metropolitan Water District survey of 3.137 commercial, institutional, and manufacturing establishments.