DWP Puts In a Call for ‘Drought Busters’ : Conservation: Department announces programs to help city cope with projected shortage. Among them are a team that will hunt down wasteful use of water.

Responding to Mayor Tom Bradley’s call for greater water conservation, the Department of Water and Power on Thursday implemented a series of programs that include a team of roving “drought busters” to patrol the streets looking for water waste.

The department’s commissioners also voted to dust off an inactive loan program designed to help home and apartment owners purchase water-saving devices, and they agreed to form special “audit teams” to help cut usage at city agencies--three of which are among the 10 biggest water users in the city.

The programs represent the first comprehensive response by the DWP to a projected 10% water shortage this summer, resulting from the fourth consecutive year of a drought that has taken a toll on the city’s traditional Northern California and Colorado River water supplies.

Rick Caruso, president of the board of commissioners, said he hopes the programs will keep the city from having to impose water rationing later in the season.

The board on Thursday also forwarded to Bradley recommendations for updating and strengthening the city’s existing conservation law that has been on the books since the 1978 drought.

Among the recommendations, which would require adoption by the City Council, are an immediate ban on landscape watering during the day and empowering the DWP to turn off the water at residences responsible for repeated runoff into the streets. Currently, only the City Council can order a violator’s service shut off.

Should the city implement rationing, the DWP is recommending that usage be gauged against consumption levels in 1986, when calls for conservation prompted what has proven to be an estimated 8% voluntary cut in water consumption.

Under the programs adopted Thursday, the DWP will be hiring 20 to 30 “drought busters” who will help enforce existing water-conservation laws and will work with homeowners--on request--on ways to cut consumption.

Caruso acknowledged that the DWP’s enforcement of Phase 1 of the city’s emergency conservation law, which bans wasteful practices such as hosing down sidewalks and driveways, has been lax.

“That’s what we want to correct” with the so-called drought busters, he said, adding: “If we need to, we can add another 20 to 30” drought busters to get the job done.

The exact staffing levels and budgets for programs have not yet been determined, Caruso said, but they will be implemented as quickly as possible.

Other programs adopted Thursday included getting audit teams to work with large users of irrigated water, such as golf courses and cemeteries; mass distribution of conservation literature and films, and the creation of water advisory committees to work with industries that are large users of water, such as, hotels, laundries, restaurants and educational facilities.

Under the loan program, homeowners could borrow from $300 to $7,500 and apartment owners could borrow up to $50,000 to aid in the purchase and installation of water-saving devices.

The program was begun in 1981 but was quickly forgotten. It was unclear Thursday if any loans were ever made under the program.

Caruso said the exact budget level has not been established.