Appeals Increase Allotments in Ventura

Carmen and Roger Shea were just getting by on Ventura’s water allotment of 294 gallons of water per day until a few months ago. But their third child was on the way, and they needed more water.

Joanie and Moustapha Abou-Samra were in trouble even earlier--from the moment Ventura began its water rationing program in April. Also limited to 294 gallons per day for themselves and their five children, they too needed more water and needed it fast.

Local homeowners were not alone in feeling the effect of the county’s first rationing ordinance 10 1/2 months ago. Some businesses also thought that they were being unfairly squeezed by the new rules.

The Doubletree Hotel had been enjoying its highest occupancy rate ever when Ventura slashed the inn’s water allotment by more than 12%. Hotel managers joined the scramble of homeowners and businesses pleading with city officials for more water.

The two families and the hotel are among thousands of Ventura water users who have asked for more water and received it in recent months, despite a rationing plan so generally tough that it has cut overall city water consumption by 24%.

Since the citywide conservation plan went into effect in April, 4,167 of Ventura’s 26,000 water customers have applied to the city Water Department for increases in their daily water allotments, Carol Green, city information officer, said.

Of those, 3,510 were approved and 546 were denied, Green said. The rest are still being processed.

Obtaining a higher water allotment is easy to do:

* Houses with more than four occupants automatically receive 49 gallons more per day for each extra resident just by asking, Llana Sherman, Ventura’s water conservation coordinator, said. These increases make up more than half of the city’s water allotment adjustments, she said.

Getting more water for other purposes is more difficult, she said:

* Those with medical problems must provide doctors’ notes proving they need more water.

* Commercial customers must pass on-site inspections of their plumbing fixtures and install low-volume toilets and low-flow shower heads.

* Housing built on erosion-prone slopes must pass inspection to determine whether the slopes are helping support the building’s foundations before a higher water allotment can be approved.

* And households with fruit trees can get eight gallons more per day for each tree, but only if residents can prove that they installed water-saving plumbing inside the house.

Water customers can obtain application forms by calling a city water hot line at 652-4567, or by picking up the forms directly from the city maintenance yard on Sanjon Road, hot line staff member Noreen Hays said.

Last April, single-family households of up to four occupants were allotted 294 gallons per day. Duplexes, apartments and condominium units with three occupants received 196 gallons per day.

Residents of households with more people need only mail in a simple application form to get more water, Sherman said.

Applicants must provide information on the people living there, including names, ages, the dates they moved in, Social Security and driver’s license numbers if available, and the place they work or attend school.

But the city does not independently verify the number of people in each house, Sherman said. Water increases often are granted within 10 to 14 days after the forms are reviewed, she said.

Ventura officials do not view the lack of a formal verification process as a loophole, Sherman said. “We view it as trusting,” Sherman said.

“There’s always people who care more about their own good than the common good, but in this city, people are very serious about the cutbacks,” she said.

Carmen and Roger Shea asked to have their 294-gallon allotment increased a few months ago at their Kinglet Street residence, just before the birth of their third child, Reuben. The family already was conserving water with toilet tank dams and low-flow shower heads, Roger Shea said.

“But, you know how it is. Babies mess their clothes a lot,” Carmen Shea said. “We weren’t that far below our required amount before he was born. I figured I’d be using quite a bit more water, and I didn’t want to pay the extra amount of money.”

Now 7 weeks old, Reuben creates two or three loads of laundry per week by himself, on top of the seven to 10 loads the older Sheas produce, and the family is glad to have the extra water allotment, his mother said.

The family of Joanie and Moustapha Abou-Samra has more complex needs, despite their efforts to conserve.

“My children are all ecology-conscientious, and my family is very proud of our dead ivy in front of the house,” Joanie Abou-Samra said. “We have the brownest front yard on the street.”

Their modern house on Via Cielito on a Ventura hillside is fitted with low-flow shower heads and ultra-low-volume toilets.

Yet with five children, two of whom have medical problems that generate eight extra loads of wash per week, the family was not getting by on 294 gallons per day, she said. They also worried about maintaining the slopes on three sides of their house, which could slide downhill if the soil is not kept appropriately damp, she said.

In May, the family asked for more water, submitted to a city inspection and now receives up to 981 gallons per day, depending on the season, she said.

The Doubletree Hotel on Harbor Boulevard faced larger, more uncontrollable water-use problems, according to Assistant Manager James Cady.

The hotel installed toilet tank dams and water-saving shower heads in all 285 rooms and revamped its laundry procedures to cut down on rinse cycles. The hotel, however, still could not control the amount of water used by hotel guests and was unable to meet its original city allotment of 36,516 gallons per day, Cady said.

“The biggest problem is dealing with customers who come from outside of California and don’t understand why their shower doesn’t put out the same kind of water they get back home,” Cady said. “Some of them say, ‘That’s not my problem.’ ”

Arguing that the hotel’s occupancy rate had jumped from 62% to more than 68% last year, the managers negotiated with the city to alter its allotments for businesses. Rather than allotting the hotel 85% of the water it used on average in the previous three years, the city increased the allotment to 54,604 gallons per day.

The hotel eventually managed to squeeze its water use to 40,073 gallons per day, down significantly from its allotment of 54,604 and its average use last February of 61,863 gallons per day, city records show.

And counseling from city water experts helped the hotel cut its additional landscape-watering use from 12,495 gallons per day last February to 3,237 gallons per day this month--1,913 gallons less than its daily allotment--by replacing grassy areas with bark and reducing water use in other areas, Cady said.

In some cases, trees need as much water as people.

Suzanne McFarland said she and her husband were granted more water to sustain the 16 avocado trees surrounding their new residence on Manzanita Court.

Because the house was built with water-saving plumbing, the couple had little difficulty getting their allotment increased from 294 gallons per day to a sliding allotment that ranges from 294 to 588 gallons daily, depending on the season, she said. The increase also covers the slope supporting their house, which must be maintained to protect the foundation, she said.

The city’s water hot line fields 50 to 100 calls per day, ranging from desperate homeowners who say they’ve tried everything to conserve water and failed, to angry customers who have just been fined for overuse, hot line staff member Hays said.

“We get calls from people who are all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and willing to help,” Sherman said. “And we get calls from people who are very angry at having something taken away from them.”