Council Declares an Emergency in Water Crisis : Drought: However, the mayor refuses to call for mandatory water-use cuts and sticks to voluntary reductions.

Faced with an impending 30% cut in water deliveries that starts Friday, the San Diego City Council declared a municipal state of emergency Tuesday that includes a potential ban on new water hookups, a 30-day voluntary conservation program and a plan to independently purchase water from Northern California and the state of Colorado.

Mayor Maureen O’Connor, who proposed the state of emergency to the council, continued to support her voluntary approach to conservation, but said that, if the plan fails to reduce water use 30% from 1989 figures, she will support mandatory cutbacks and fines beginning March 31. But she said she believes that San Diegans will rise to the occasion.

“I don’t think we should be mean-spirited in this program. Every time we have asked San Diegans to conserve, they have,” she said, referring to a voluntary effort she spearheaded that saved about 10% per month last summer, but then dropped off dramatically. “Yes, we are in a crisis situation. But pitting neighborhood against neighborhood is not the way to solve it.”

The council’s action came just one day after Gov. Pete Wilson announced new and unprecedented cutbacks of state water deliveries. By mid-March, the State Water Project will effectively stop pumping water to Southern California. Meanwhile, the Metropolitan Water District, the regional wholesale provider of more than 90% of San Diego County’s water is expected next week to reduce its deliveries by half.

In light of these factors, Councilman Bob Filner said he could not support O’Connor’s approach.

“We are sending mixed signals,” he said. “We cannot say we are declaring a state of emergency and then, in the next sentence, say, ‘Oh, it’s voluntary.’ We have to be more responsible as a city.”

Filner said mandatory measures provide for more “equity and fairness” in the city’s drought response. And he rejected O’Connor’s assertion that, once she reconvenes her Water Conservation Task Force to begin a “media blitz” on March 1, the city will be fully equipped to meet its 30% goal.

“You can’t ask for more of a media blitz than in February,” Filner said, referring to the nearly daily coverage the drought has received in recent weeks. “And the people of San Diego have saved 4.1%!”

“We don’t ask for voluntary compliance for people to put smog devices on their cars . . . or to stop at red lights,” he said. “Let us get away from the idea of a media blitz, and let’s talk about mandatory measures.”

Filner alone voted against O’Connor’s state-of-emergency measure, which she said she needed in part to provide authorization for housekeeping items, such as waiving the conditions set forward in certain contracts that require daily watering of landscaped areas.

O’Connor also said that, in keeping with the spirit of her voluntary program, she has met with the top 33 industrial and commercial water users, and they have agreed to submit plans, which city manager John Lockwood described as “pledges,” that outline how they will save 30% beginning in March. She praised those water users, which include the Navy and the Marines, while using statistics to take a swipe at governmental agencies.

According to O’Connor, statistics show that the Navy used 9% less water in 1990 than in 1989, while the Marines saved 20%. In contrast, she said, the city of San Diego decreased its use just 4% during the same period, and the county of San Diego’s water use went up 4%.

She called the San Diego Zoo “the real winner,” noting that from 1989 to 1990 its water consumption decreased 26%. At one point, O’Connor suggested that city park and recreation department employees could take lessons from the zoo.

O’Connor spokesman Paul Downey said Monday that the mayor’s plan for water purchases would use $30 million from city water revenues. But, on Tuesday, city water utilities director Milon Mills said the $30 million was money set aside by MWD for the region as a whole, not just San Diego.

“We don’t have the money,” Mills said of his department.

Mark Stadler, a spokesman for the San Diego County Water Authority, said that, even if O’Connor had $30 million at her disposal, there could be other obstacles that would keep San Diego from getting water directly from the state of Colorado.

Under the Colorado River Compact, he said, Colorado can’t sell water without the permission of the six other states that border the Colorado River or the Department of the Interior. What’s more, Stadler said, since the Colorado River Aqueduct already runs at capacity, there is a question about how additional water could be delivered.

“How’s it going to get here?” he asked. “I guess she’s going to have to truck it to San Diego.”