THE DROUGHT : Flynn Urges Local Plans to Ration Water : A meeting to discuss statewide restrictions attracts a record crowd. Some argue counties should submit their own proposals; others say such plans may not be stringent enough.

Ventura County Supervisor John K. Flynn joined farmers and water purveyors in Sacramento on Tuesday in lobbying the state’s water board to forgo drastic statewide water restrictions and let local areas solve their own drought problems.

During a public hearing in Sacramento on Tuesday that was expected to continue through today, Flynn asked the State Water Resources Control Board to have each of the state’s 58 counties develop emergency drought plans to submit to the state.

The counties, he said, should work with area water districts and cities to address each of 18 water restrictions the state board is considering to combat the fifth year of drought.

Among the austerity moves under consideration are measures that would slash agricultural water use, turn off the flow of state water into Southern California and elsewhere in the state and limit home use to 300 gallons of water a day. Another proposal calls for large reservoir operators, such as the Casitas Municipal Water District, to share their water with other, drier communities outside their normal service areas.

The restrictions on agricultural use include one that would allow enough water to maintain perennial crops, such as citrus and avocado trees, but would forbid water for annuals. That could devastate the economy in Ventura County, which raises such profitable crops as strawberries, flowers and vegetables, Flynn said.

“We could just compound the drought problems by throwing people out of work,” he said. County officials could better allocate water according to needs, he said.

But Mark Capelli, a biologist with the environmental group Friends of the Ventura River, said the state’s water would be more equitably divided if one statewide authority handles the drought management plan.

“Not every county will have the political will to take the kind of tough steps that are necessary to get through the drought,” he said.

About 700 people, the most ever to attend a state water board meeting, showed up for the first day of public hearings at the Sacramento Convention Center.

The state board, which has regulatory authority over all surface and ground-water use statewide, will meet in special session Feb. 7 in Sacramento to decide what restrictions to impose. The measures would affect only surface water, including State Water Project supplies that come from Northern California rivers and mountain runoff.

The measures, which water board Chairman W. Don Maughan acknowledged are the most drastic in California history, are being considered as the state faces the driest year yet of the drought that began in 1986.

Precipitation in the current water year, which began Oct. 1, is 28% of normal. Reservoirs in Northern California, which have helped carry the state through drought, are at 54% of average levels and 32% of capacity. Storage in four Southern California reservoirs operated by the Metropolitan Water District is closer to 80%, but those supplies are set aside for emergency use, officials said.

Carl Boronkay, MWD general manager, said the statewide approach is the wrong way to tackle the state’s water troubles.

“There are just so many variations, so many intricacies that it’s a mistake to try to have a general rule to apply to everybody,” he said. MWD supplies water to 15 million people in Southern California. In Ventura County, MWD provides water to 450,000 people in Simi Valley, Thousand Oaks, Moorpark, Oxnard and Camarillo through the Calleguas Municipal Water District.

MWD receives 60% of its water from the State Water Project and about 40% from the Colorado River. The Colorado River at the state’s border with Arizona would not be affected by state drought measures.

The proposal that would cut off State Water Project supplies to Southern California would require MWD to use water from its reservoirs.

“We have got to have some state water coming into Southern California because there are isolated areas--like some cities in Ventura County--that depend only on state water,” said MWD spokesman Bob Gomperz.

MWD already has cut supplies 10% to the cities it serves and 30% to agricultural users. The city of Ventura already limits water use to 294 gallons a day per household. The city pumps two-thirds of its water from the ground and receives the other third from Casitas Municipal Water District.

Ojai receives all its water from Casitas.

The cities of Santa Paula, Fillmore and Port Hueneme would be relatively unaffected by the proposed measures because they use only ground water.

Flynn, who has pushed for a county water authority in the past, said he is not proposing such an entity now. Instead, he said, he wants the county, its 10 cities, water districts and agricultural users to jointly draft a plan to submit to the state by Feb. 15.

Flynn said the drought plan could require that any new development cause no net increase in water use by such measures as retrofitting existing buildings with water-saving devices. The county could also implement fines for wasting water, he said.

Frederick J. Gientke, general manager of the Santa Paula-based United Water Conservation District, said the county’s three largest districts could also act as the umbrella agency to draft and implement a drought plan.

Those three districts are United, which supplies water to recharge underground basins in the Santa Clara River Valley and the Oxnard Plain, Calleguas and Casitas.

Times staff writer Virginia Ellis contributed to this report.

RATIONING OUTLOOK FOR STATE WATER

Depending on the amount of rain that falls between now and the end of the winter/spring season, officials expect to reduce water flowing to agriculture and residential users from the State Water Project--one of California’s main water sources. Although the reductions could completely shut off agriculture’s allocations, many regions, including Ventura County, have alternative water sources. Farmers in the San Joaquin Valley, for instance, can draw from the federal government’s giant Central Valley Project.

WATER DELIVERY CUTS WATER DELIVERY CUTS RAINFALL AMOUNT TO AGRICULTURE TO CITIES AND INDUSTRIES * Below normal 100% 85% * Normal 100% 50% * Above normal 50% No cuts