L.A. Fails to Reach 10% Cut in Water Use : Drought: Despite reduction of only 5.2%, officials will not impose mandatory rationing right away. October was the first month the goal was not met.

Water conservation in Los Angeles dropped dramatically in October, but officials said Thursday they have little appetite for instituting mandatory rationing any time soon.

The Department of Water and Power announced Thursday that its customers had cut down their water usage by only 5.2% last month, falling far short of the 10% conservation goal that would head off rationing. It was the first time in the six months that the DWP has been measuring conservation efforts that the city failed to meet its 10% goal.

During those months, the DWP has instituted a crackdown on water wasters, issuing more than 9,000 citations to homeowners and businesses, officials said. About 100 customers have been cited twice and only two have been cited three times, a DWP spokeswoman said.

By far the most frequent violation is lawn watering between the prohibited hours of 10 a.m. and 5 p.m., DWP statistics indicate. The fines for citations range from $50 to $150.

Mayor Tom Bradley, who began pushing for mandatory rationing last spring, said Thursday that regardless of the disappointing conservation figures, he will hold off on asking the City Council to impose the mandatory program.

“Let’s continue to watch our conservation record,” Bradley said in a written statement. He said his stand should not be seen “as a signal that the drought has ended, because this isn’t so.”

Bradley does not want to set a mandatory plan in motion now, his office said, because by the time it would be fully in effect--possibly as late as February--there may be signals that the 4-year-old drought has eased.

“By February, we’re going to have a pretty good idea and by March, we’ll know,” said John Stodder, Bradley’s environmental coordinator. “There could be historic high snowpacks in the Sierra.”

In July, the City Council rejected Bradley’s call for rationing and passed a voluntary program. Under that plan, if the city fails to cut water use by 10% in any month, the council could vote to institute the mandatory program.

Nevertheless, City Council President John Ferraro said Thursday he has no immediate plans to schedule a hearing on the matter. “There was one bad month,” he said. “Let’s wait a little longer before we start talking about mandatory rationing.”

Councilman Marvin Braude, the council’s staunchest rationing advocate, said the city should put in place the mandatory measures to set an example for others in the region and show good faith to areas from which the city draws water.

“We must never forget that we live in the desert,” Braude said, “and that water is essential not only to our economy but to our health and survival.” Braude said he may move to put the issue on the council agenda.

Jerry Gewe, a senior engineer for the DWP, attributed the drop to the beginning of fall and seasonal quirks. The most dramatic conservation occurs in the summer, he said, when people use more water on landscaping and can therefore cut back by a greater amount.

Part of the apparent drop may be the result of a statistical problem, he added. It is more difficult to calculate normal water use for October because it is a “swing month” with both hot and cold days. Consequently, he said, there is a greater margin of error in the DWP’s calculation of how much water the city consumes.

DWP engineers determine a “normalized” level of water use for each month with the help of a computer program that analyzes temperature, precipitation, population growth, past water usage and other factors. Under the city’s conservation ordinance, usage should fall at least 10% below the number calculated by the DWP.

If the council decides to institute mandatory rationing, customers will be required to cut their water use by 10% from the amount their households or businesses used in the same month in 1986 or face heavy surcharges.

To encourage voluntary conservation, the DWP has dispatched a team of “drought busters” to enforce conservation rules since last May. About 9,731 customers have been cited. Another 13,000 were contacted by the drought busters for consultation on water-wasting practices that were not technically illegal, a DWP spokeswoman said.

“Most people are very positive about it,” said Tom Jamentz, manager of water conservation for the DWP. “Some people just didn’t realize what was happening. They weren’t aware of the law.”

In some cases, customers argue that they cannot comply with the law, Jamentz said. One customer caught hosing down his driveway insisted it was the only way he could remove berries that had fallen, Jamentz said. He was told to use a bucket of water and a broom.

Illegal hosing of sidewalks, driveways and parking areas accounted for 2,954 citations; 2,442 customers were cited for chronic unrepaired water leaks; 1,108 for watering that runs into a gutter or sidewalk; 20 for using water in a fountain or pond without recycling it, and 13 for serving unrequested water in a restaurant.