S.F. Officials Likely to OK Even Stricter Rationing

Washing a car or relaxing in a freshly filled hot tub could become the drought’s latest casualties today when city officials are expected to approve a sweeping set of water cutbacks.

The city’s Public Utilities Commission will consider imposing one of the most rigid rationing programs in the state--a 90% reduction for outdoor water use and a 33% cut in indoor consumption from pre-drought levels for nearly 3 million Bay Area customers served by the San Francisco Water Department.

In San Francisco, where since May, 1990, the water department has forced residents to slash their normal consumption levels by almost a quarter, the ruling could be even more restrictive. The commission may forbid washing motor vehicles outside of commercial car cleaners and filling hot tubs or swimming pools.

“We’re telling our customers and users to prepare for the worst,” said James Beard, president of the San Francisco Bay Area Water Users Assn., an agency that represents 30 community water departments that buy San Francisco’s water.

Members of the Public Utilities Commission--who warn that if current levels of rainfall persist, reservoirs will be “bone-dry” in 18 months--now say the question is not whether to further clamp down on consumers, but how much.

“The bottom line is that there will be increased rationing, without a question,” said Sherri Chiesa, president of the Public Utilities Commission, a legislative body appointed by San Francisco’s mayor that sets and approves budgets for the city’s utilities. “If this commission doesn’t do the right thing now, then in a year’s time, we could be talking catastrophe.”

In a normal year, the San Francisco Water Department pipes more than 300,000 acre-feet of water from Northern California reservoirs to users, enough to fill Lake Castaic. Last year, however, output slowed to 243,000. One acre-foot of water is considered enough to supply a family of five for about a year.

“We’re not sure of how much water we’ll end up using,” said Cheryl Davis, a manager for the Water Department. “We know what our goal is, though”--to save water.

Dan Champeau, a senior civil engineer with the San Francisco Water Department, predicted that the proposed rules would affect apartment owners who pay their tenants’ water bills; they would face stiff financial penalties if the tenants exceeded their allotted amounts. Motorists who regularly wash their cars also would soon feel the impact of the drought, he said.

“That one will hit home,” he said. But he added that the restriction on filling swimming pools is irrelevant because there are few residential pools in San Francisco.

In the parlance of other officials, however, any cutbacks--no matter how insignificant--are already long overdue.

“People are going to have to make sacrifices, but in my view, that’s essential,” said Arthur Toupin, a member of the Public Utilities Commission.

H. Welton Flynn, who has been a commissioner since 1970 and saw San Francisco through two other dry spells, said this one “is the worst of them, no question about it.”

“I believe cutbacks are necessary,” he said. “We’ve got to do better than we’re doing now.”

Other commissioners, like Gordon Chin, said the commission is already “apprehensive” about today’s decision, in part because it is expected to meet with resistance from residents and business owners.

“There’s no question that there will be cuts,” he said. “We can do it, and we will do it.”