NEWPORT BEACH : Mandatory Water Rationing to Begin

City residents must reduce water use by 10% beginning Feb. 1 or pay almost double the price for the extra water.

The Metropolitan Water District ordered Newport Beach and the 26 other agencies that it supplies with water to cut back by 17% to combat the effects of a five-year drought that has left the state’s reservoirs at an all-time low.

Newport Beach is one of the first cities in Orange County to adopt mandatory rationing.

Utilities Director Robert Dixon said the average household in Newport Beach used 447 gallons of water per day last summer and paid about $38 each billing period.

If the same family continued using the same amount after Feb. 1, their bill would increase to $41 for the same period. If they cut back by 10% or 44 gallons, their bill will drop to $34.

Dixon said city officials will begin mailing information to customers and homeowner associations and will offer a hot line number: (714) 644-3DRY.

He noted that customers have voluntarily cut back water usage by 7% since last summer.

“The 10% will not be difficult to enforce,” he said. “Having gotten the 7%, I don’t think an additional 3% is going to be that much of a problem.”

However, he said he is “very concerned about going to the 20% level.”

The MWD’s order last week also included plans to eventually cut supply back by 20% if the drought persists.

MWD Director John Killefer called Newport’s ordinance a “beaut,” but said he would like to see it made tougher so that customers would understand the seriousness of the situation.

He said the last drought in the middle to late 1970s prompted similar rationing measures, but was not as serious as this one because the district now serves 4 million more people “with the same amount of water.”