COPING WITH THE WATER SHORTAGE : CONSERVATION : Agencies Dust Off Old Guidelines : Rationing: Los Angeles responded enthusiastically in 1977, but there isn’t as much fat this time because some practices have continued.

Flashback: Los Angeles, 1977.

Once-lush lawns have become arid, brown carpets. Cars accustomed to a weekly hosing off have streaks and layers of soot. Restaurants that plied customers with glass upon glass of water have turned decidedly stingy.

That was the way it was in Los Angeles during the last bad drought, which was severe enough to persuade city officials to impose mandatory watering rationing on all residents and businesses.

With the state in the grip of an even worse dry spell, it could well describe Los Angeles in 1991, as residents again face up to water cutbacks--the toughest in the city’s history.

The last time Los Angeles ordered mandatory water rationing, Southern California was only two years into a drought and city officials had varying degrees of expectation about whether this unprecedented idea would work.

But in 1977, Los Angeles residents responded to rationing with patriotic verve. Under orders to save 10% of their water, the city reduced 19% of its consumption over the seven-month cutback that ended with a January deluge.

And for many, the impact was less horrific than it was humorous. There was the popular bumper sticker: “Save Water, Shower With a Friend.”

“I really sense from the cooperation of the public that this was almost a patriotic thing,” said James M. Derry, coordinator of the 1977 rationing program for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.

“A brown lawn became a status symbol.”

On Tuesday, the Los Angeles City Council voted to require residents and businesses to reduce water use by 10% on March 1 and by 15% on May 1, based on 1986 levels.

City officials said that the cutbacks may not be sufficient to cope with the fifth year of drought and that more stringent rationing may be needed.

But in the last drought, officials were pleasantly surprised. The Los Angeles City Council ordered residential water users to cut back 10% of their consumption on July 1, 1977. Scofflaws were threatened with fines and water shut-offs. Then, in January, 1978, a three-day storm soaked Los Angeles and led the council to stop the rationing even though there had been almost no public outcry.

By January, Derry said, fewer than 10% of the city’s residents had not complied with the order. And many, he said, far exceeded the minimum requirement.

In 1977, homeowners sacrificed their lawns and let cars gather grime. Restaurants wouldn’t serve water without a request and people put bricks in their toilet tanks.

Even the leaf blower, the noisy scourge of some communities today, traces its roots to the 1977 water shortage. Previously, gardeners and landscapers routinely used hoses to wash sidewalks and driveways.

“Somehow we were able to manage,” said Roy Imazu, owner of a landscaping company. “It doesn’t seem like it was quite that urgent; I remember the gas shortage more than I remember the water shortage.”

Earlier this month, the Metropolitan Water District ordered Southern California water agencies to cut back 20% of their residential consumption. And as many Southern California cities prepare for a second round of mandatory water limits, officials are dusting off files that date back nearly 14 years.

Derry, now the Los Angeles Water and Power Department’s customer services director, went to his garage recently and found a box with many of the 1977 letters sent to various industries with water-saving suggestions. He said they will be rewritten and sent to many of the same businesses.

He said he is contemplating resurrecting some of the 1977 slogans, such as “Save Water, Shower With a Friend” and “Shut Your Tap.”

In Torrance, water district analyst Chuck Schaich said the city recently dug up a 1977 flyer called “25 Ways to Save Water.” He said the city plans to recycle it, but with a minor revision. The new version will be: “35 Ways to Save Water.”

Many officials have mixed feelings about how severe the impact will be compared with 1977.

On one hand, new technologies such as low-flush toilets and drip-irrigation systems are widely available today.

For the average house, Derry said, a switch to low-flush toilets and new shower heads could be enough to produce a 10% water savings.

“A 10% to 15% cutback does not really require a lifestyle change,” Derry said.

Many cities, including Los Angeles, are offering incentives to builders or homeowners who install low-flush toilets.

On the other hand, officials say that it may be more difficult to obtain additional water savings in this drought because people continued some 1977 conservation practices.

“Ever since 1977, many water agencies have had conservation programs in place,” said Willard Bangham, manager of water systems in Pasadena. “Now, and especially after four dry years, there is going to be less easy conservation to achieve. All the fat has been taken out.”