MWD to Seek 31% Reduction in Water Use

Threatening the most severe drought measures in its history, officials of the Metropolitan Water District said Wednesday they will ask their board in mid-February to order Southern California water agencies to cut consumption by 31%.

At the same time, MWD manager Carl Boronkay said the big water wholesaler will begin making contingency plans for even more drastic reductions if rainfall continues to be abnormally low through the spring. He said that phase of cuts would probably call for reductions of 38% and then 45%.

In San Diego County, talk of such cuts brought grim reactions from local officials.

“It’s going to pose an extreme hardship on the people of San Diego County,” said James R. Melton, spokesman for the San Diego County Water Authority. “Because, unlike many areas in the (MWD) service area, we rely almost entirely on their supplies.”

Melton said local officials are planning to implement a 15% reduction Friday, up from the 10% imposed last year. He said, however, the local water authority will “follow to the letter” the MWD reductions, which could mean a 30% slash in services by March 1.

Paul Downey, a spokesman for San Diego Mayor Maureen O’Connor, said Wednesday a 30% cut would have “a big impact” on the state’s second-largest city, but a 40%-or-greater cut “would have a tremendous impact, perhaps a devastating impact.”

Nevertheless, Downey said O’Connor remains opposed to mandatory rationing, believing that San Diegans have demonstrated they can abide by voluntary measures and stay in line with reductions mandated by the state and county.

“If we’re unable to meet our goals, we always have the option of mandatory rationing,” Downey said. “But, since we’ve been successful with voluntary, the mayor sees no reason not to give it a chance to work.”

Despite Downey’s optimism that voluntary measures will work, he and local water officials said serious changes in the lifestyles of San Diego residents are inevitable. As James R. Melton of the county water authority put it, the watering of lawns and gardens may soon be a thing of the past.

“With a 30% cut, it means all or most of our lawns are going to be very difficult to keep alive,” Melton said. “And, with 40% cuts, well, it would be next to impossible to keep a lawn alive. We might even have to outlaw sprinkler systems.”

Melton said the upcoming 15% cut--already the highest in the history of the county--is predicated by the worst drought to face California since 1977. But its impact, he said, may be worse in San Diego than previous droughts because of the area’s dependence on outside water sources.

“This is far more severe than most areas served by MWD,” Melton said, “because many of the other areas have ground water and other sources. We, for the most part, don’t.”

Milon Mills, water utilities director for the city of San Diego, echoed Melton’s concerns and said the State Water Project and the Colorado River are the lifeblood of the area’s water supply--95%, to be exact.

“Local reservoirs are not our answer,” Mills said. “And they never will be. The State Water Project and the Colorado River are the tires on our car. They take us where we need to go. Local reservoirs are merely our spare. They won’t take us anywhere.”

Mills said he was shocked by the grim projections.

“I think we could do 20%,” he said, referring to a cut in services. “And maybe we could go to 25% voluntarily. But to go to 30% or higher would be very, very difficult.

“I expected we would get to this point, but not this soon. I would have thought late spring or early summer. And then a 45% cut, well, that would take extraordinary measures on the part of all our citizens.”

Melton said San Diego County will pass along MWD’s restrictions to its 23 member agencies, most of which don’t have the “spare” reservoirs the city of San Diego does. He said proposed cuts will affect equally “across the board” commercial, residential and manufacturing segments.

He said each member agency will be responsible for “reaching its own goals,” but for every acre foot of water used above the allocation level, agencies will be assessed a fine three times the normal amount for that acre foot. At the same time, for every foot under the allocation, Melton said, agencies will win back a 50% rebate of the cost of that acre foot.

City water official Mills said the problem is so severe throughout the state that it will now take “a series of extraordinary winters” in Northern California--not just one--to make a difference. He said a flood “would be welcome.”

The threatened cutback, coupled with the “dismal” level of snowfall in the Sierra, has convinced Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley and key members of the City Council that mandatory rationing is necessary, sources in City Hall said. They plan to announce Friday that they will seek council authority to enact the rationing plan.

With precipitation at 28% of normal, the state is entering its fifth year of drought. If rainfall increases and is above normal for the winter and spring, many of the cutbacks could be avoided.

The new 31% reduction, which cannot be imposed without MWD board approval, would take effect about March 1. It would be the third time in three months that MWD has ordered cutbacks in deliveries to the 27 water agencies it serves.

The district supplies Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura counties. Most of its water comes from the State Water Project and the Colorado River.

In December, the district ordered agencies to reduce consumption by 10%, and in early January increased the cutbacks to 17%.

While the district can limit the water it supplies, it leaves it to cities and counties to decide how and whether to ration water to their customers. Some governments are considering mandatory water rationing to make up for the supply cuts.

The MWD’s proposal would cut 31% from the amount of water requested this year by its member agencies.

To reach the 31%, officials said, a 20% cut in deliveries for residential use and a 50% cut in deliveries for agricultural use would be required.

Water authorities have said that 15% is about as much as residential users can easily conserve. Los Angeles officials said the 10% rationing plan would probably result in a 15% reduction in water use for residential customers.

MWD Manager Carl Boronkay said the latest measures were prompted by an announcement Tuesday by state officials that the State Water Project would cut the amount of water it is supplying to the MWD by 85% if drought conditions continue to be critical.

“That was flabbergasting,” he said.

Even if rainfall is normal through the spring, he said, officials had promised to give the district only half of the water it has requested. The MWD usually gets about 60% of its supplies from the state project.

Boronkay said he considered moving to a water conservation plan that would require a 24% reduction in consumption--the fourth phase of a five-phase plan. But he then decided it would probably be better to require the 31% cut.

He predicted however, that cuts beyond 45% would be “too painful” and before the district would consider such measures it would try first to buy water from other sources, particularly irrigation districts above the Sacramento-San Jaoquin River Delta.

“You can’t cut 50%,” he said. “We’re already into fear of losing landscaping and a lot of tourism depends on water. We’re going to have to do better than just cut or the board will get a new general manager, I fear.”

Ellis reported from Sacramento and Fritsch from Los Angeles. Contributing to this story were staff writers Marla Cone in Orange County, Michael Granberry in San Diego and Joanna Miller in Ventura County.