Drought Spurs Lifestyle Changes : Conservation: Shorter--and fewer--showers help. Some try new landscaping techniques. However, many say that they have not had to greatly change their habits.

Joan Raymondi gave up her begonias, gardenias and lilies. Ed Elrod lugs tubs of recyclable water through the house. Darrel Scheuerman bought a leaf blower. And Phil Schmit feeds leftovers to his chickens and pig instead of flushing them down his garbage disposal.

With the state facing its longest drought in six decades, these Southern California residents are on the vanguard of water conservation, changing their lifestyle in order to reduce their consumption of the dwindling resource.

They are the type who keep an old tin can or plastic container around to catch recyclable indoor water, who turn in water-reckless neighbors to the local drought police and do not mind making life unpleasant for family members partial to long showers or who let the tap run while brushing their teeth.

They have changed their landscaping and their bathing habits. Not even toilet flushing is off limits.

“People think you’re a little ridiculous at first,” said Elrod, a Ventura resident who has become an enthusiastic water recycler. “But when they see you go at it vehemently, they kind of fall in line.”

According to a Times Poll conducted during the last week of January, Californians consider the drought the state’s most pressing problem after crime, gangs and drugs. More than half responded that they would support the idea of mandatory conservation laws.

State officials are considering a water rationing plan that would affect all Californians. Many cities already have mandatory controls in place. The city of Los Angeles may impose restrictions as soon as March 1.

A majority of respondents to the Times Poll said they already have taken simple water-saving steps, such as curtailing showers, car washing and hosing of sidewalks.

But only 5% of the 1,986 respondents said the drought has changed their lifestyle a great deal.

George Westendorf, 77, of Palm Desert said he has given up daily showers, taking them every other day instead.

“I miss them, but what are you going to do?” the retired store clerk said.

Ed Elrod, who runs a Ventura bookstore, says he let his lawn turn brown and has started taking his car to a commercial carwash instead of hosing it down at home.

He also goes to considerable lengths to reuse indoor water.

To keep what remains of his garden green--and he now grows mainly drought-resistant cacti and succulents--he uses plastic tubs to scoop up the dish rinse water from his kitchen sink and to catch the cold water that flows from his shower head before the hot water arrives.

Although many public health officials say the use of so-called “gray water” is unhealthy, advocates contend it poses no hazard if basic safeguards are followed. They estimate that recycling water from showers and washing machines--the best sources of recycleable household water--can save 25 to 40 gallons of water per person a day.

Elrod’s recycling effort is on a small scale, saving about four gallons a day. But it is “pretty easy once you get into the habit,” he said.

Spills happen frequently, but Elrod takes them in stride.

“My neighbors think I’m cuckoo carrying water out of the bathrooms,” he said. “But they all have dead lawns, too, so I think they got the idea.”

About 50 miles to the east, Sepulveda resident Joan Raymondi, 56, also recycles a couple of gallons a day by saving the cold water that runs from her bathroom spigots before the hot water comes on. She uses this water for washing clothes, watering plants and cooking soup. But that’s not all she does.

She and her husband, Raymond, 62, used to take showers at different times of day--she preferred the morning and he the evening. Now, however, they take their showers consecutively so that water isn’t wasted a second time waiting for the water heater to start working. They also turn on a five-minute timer when they step into the shower, shutting off the water as soon as it buzzes.

She has reported neighbors to local authorities if she caught them hosing down their driveways or operating sprinklers that spray the sidewalks instead of just the lawn. “I’m glad I told them, but one neighbor wasn’t,” she said. “It doesn’t sound nice (to complain), but, heck, I’m doing it (conserving). We’re in a bad situation.”

She also said she will not grow any more begonias, gardenia bushes or lilies in her garden because of the drought. Her flowers perished in the recent freeze, and she has refrained from planting new ones.

Phil Schmit, 46, who lives on a small farm near Ojai, said the visible shrinkage of a pond on his property provides him with a daily reminder of the water crisis gripping the state. So, he tries to be conscientious.

He will not let his family use the garbage disposal anymore, which can easily consume a gallon or more of water each time.

“All of our food waste goes to our animals,” he said.

He also has rigged up a pipe to carry the rinse water from washing dishes and clothes to his flower beds and fruit trees. He said he is contemplating hooking up a similar device to reuse shower water in his garden, as well.

Darrel Scheuerman, 55, of Chula Vista described himself as “not an environmentalist. I’m one of those middle-of-the-road people who don’t go off the deep end on either side” of an issue. He said he stopped saving newspapers, for instance, when he found out how much trouble it was to find a recycling center.

When it comes to conserving water, he said, he has “done a whole lot of things” that have resulted in a 20% reduction in his household water consumption.

Instead of hosing leaves and dirt off his driveway, Scheuerman either gets out a broom or the $50 electric leaf blower he bought last year.

He puts up with the noise (“I wear earmuffs”) and the inconvenience of dragging around an electric cord while using the blower because, he said, “We’re having a water shortage, and I’m trying to do my part.”

Scheuerman said he is not above using “a little sarcasm” to make sure the other members of his household do the right thing, too.

“I just say, ‘What’s the matter? Forget to turn off the water?’ They don’t like to hear me bitch at them, so they do it.”