County Orders a 20% Cutback in Water Use : Drought: The mandate applies to the government itself, the single largest consumer in the area.

Reacting to an imminent cutback in Southern California’s water supplies, the County Board of Supervisors Tuesday ordered a 20% reduction in county government water use, and two agencies serving the Laguna Beach area decided to impose stiff penalties on customers who fail to conserve.

The decisions are the latest actions in an increasing number of such water-saving mandates in Orange County as California nears the end of a record-breaking fifth consecutive year of drought. Nine cities and water districts in the county now have restrictions that impose fines on consumers for excessive water use.

The county supervisors unanimously ordered county government agencies to cut their water use by one-fifth. The county government, which manages a network of regional parks, is by far the single largest water consumer in the county.

The county’s decision “shows local government leadership and commitment to conservation that will set an example for the cities of the rest of the county,” said Robert Huntley, a director of the Municipal Water District of Orange County.

Total water use by the county government, which employs about 16,000 workers, has not been calculated. But the Environmental Management Agency, which manages the county’s 17 regional parks, used about 9 billion gallons last year, far more than any industry, farm or other major water user in Orange County, according to county financial records.

Supervisor Harriett M. Wieder, who proposed the action Tuesday to cut county government’s water consumption, warned that the state is suffering “the most severe drought which most Californians can remember.” She said it will take “some soul-searching” throughout Orange County to meet the cuts.

The actions taken by the county and the individual water agencies are in response to the announcement last week by the Metropolitan Water District that the delivery of imported water to the six-county Southern California area would be slashed by 20% to homes and businesses beginning March 1.

Unlike Los Angeles County residents, all of whom are served by one water agency, Orange County residents are supplied water by about 35 districts or cities, all of which are imposing rationing programs of varying severity.

The separate decisions made Tuesday by the Laguna Beach County Water District and the South Coast Water District mean that those who live in Laguna Beach and parts of Laguna Niguel and Dana Point will have to cut their water consumption by 20% beginning March 1.

For a typical Laguna Beach household, which uses an average of 465 gallons of water a day, the cut is equivalent to about four bathtubs of water a day.

Residents served by the Laguna Beach County Water District who fail to cut back by 20% will be charged triple for the additional water used; for those served by the South Coast Water District, the charges will be double for any additional use. Water use will be compared to the corresponding month of the previous year.

The Laguna Beach County Water District serves 8,000 customers from Crystal Cove State Park on the north to Nyes Place just north of South Laguna. The South Coast district serves 6,500 customers between Nyes Place on the north to Street of the Blue Lantern on the south, and to Pacific Island Drive and Camino del Avion inland.

Orange County districts or cities that have already imposed price increases on customers who fail to conserve are Newport Beach, Irvine Ranch Water District, Santiago County Water District, Serrano Irrigation District, South Coast Water District, Trabuco Canyon Water District and the El Toro Water District.

Newport Beach was one of the first cities to increase rates to encourage conservation. It doubled household water rates beginning Feb. 1 for any water used in excess of 90% of the amount used during the corresponding month last year. That drops to 85% on March 1 and to 80% on April 1.

Some Orange County water officials are urging rules that are even more stringent.

“We’re talking about a very scarce resource. There are those people out there willing to pay whatever they have to pay in order to satisfy their desires,” said Edward A. LaBahn, a South Coast Water District board member. “This situation is serious enough that we need to do more than just this,” he said of imposing penalties on consumers using excess amounts of water.

In Laguna Beach, water officials said further mandates are possible and that they may resort to installing flow restricters at meters, issuing citations and even using temporary shut-offs.

Other cities and water districts are also considering strict conservation measures.

Board members of the Capistrano Valley Water District, which serves about 8,000 residential customers in San Juan Capistrano and a small part of Capistrano Beach, Tuesday night discussed imposing new rates on customers who don’t cut back by 20%, but they postponed a final decision pending a public hearing March 12.

“We’re going to wait a week or so,” said Lawrence F. Buchheim, a board director and a member of the San Juan Capistrano City Council. “But people are going to have to realize we have to do something about the water rates.”

Coastal and South County cities, most of which rely heavily on imported water, will need to conserve the most because they are the hardest hit, said Jim Van Haun, a spokesman for the Orange County Water District. Northern and western cities have access to ground water and therefore are not dependent on water from outside sources.

“In Laguna Beach, 100% of their water comes from Metropolitan (Water District), so they’re going to be impacted dramatically,” Van Haun said. “‘From Newport Beach south, that’s all imported water.”

Two Orange County cities, La Habra and Santa Ana, have imposed restrictions on outdoor water use, among them a ban on washing down sidewalks and irrigating lawns during the daytime. La Habra has limited household and commercial irrigation to odd or even days, depending on the last digits in addresses. Anaheim is expected to adopt similar rules next week.

The Fullerton City Council voted unanimously Tuesday night to impose a five-phase water-conservation plan that could ultimately lead to a 25% reduction in water use should the drought continue beyond a certain time period. The first phase, effective immediately, bans hosing of sidewalks, restricts watering of landscaping and prohibits restaurants from serving water that has not been requested.

While residents are figuring out how to work with household cutbacks, park rangers are struggling with the challenge of meeting the county’s 20% reduction order in a way that allows them to maintain 20,000 acres of county parkland.

“We still want to keep our turf and trees alive and well, but we want to do it with the least amount of water,” said Jeff Bukshpan, senior park ranger at Carbon Canyon Regional Park in Brea, which has 60 irrigated acres of land. “We’re doing the best we can. A few trees look a little bit dry, but hopefully we won’t lose any trees or patches of turf.”

Eight county parks, each an average of 250 acres, require year-round watering because they contain large amounts of grass and other thirsty plantings.

At Laguna Niguel Regional Park, rangers are already irrigating parkland only twice a week to comply with a request from the Moulton Niguel Water District.

“We’ve already started our cutbacks,” said Bruce Buchman, supervising park ranger at the 174-acre park. “We’re going to have to find ways of using less water yet keep the park green.”

John Bovee, park ranger at Santiago Oaks Regional Park in Orange, said his 300-acre park and others such as the Ronald W. Caspers Wilderness Park, are luckier than some because they are covered with nearly all-natural vegetation that requires no irrigation.

But even the natural wilderness parks are suffering because of the lower than usual rainfall.

“The native vegetation like the oaks are stressed,” Bovee said. “Kind of a graying look. You can tell they aren’t the healthy green color we’re used to seeing.

County officials said they will investigate other options for cutting water consumption, such as installing more efficient plumbing in county buildings.

Wieder, who has taken the lead in the county in recent years in water-supply matters, warned fellow board members that the county government should prepare to cut its use by half in the near future as water deliveries to Southern California are cut further.

Contributing to this report were Times staff writers Jim Newton and Mike DiGiovanna, researchers Kathie Bozanich and Dallas M. Jackson, and correspondents Leslie Earnest, Terry Spencer and Len Hall.