YORBA LINDA : Water Conservation Measures Outlined

Pinched by the drought and possible fines from the Metropolitan Water District, the Yorba Linda Water District is expected to adopt a voluntary water conservation plan asking residential customers to reduce their consumption by about 15%.

The plan, outlined to members of the district’s five-member board last week, also requests that commercial businesses reduce consumption by 10% and that agricultural and landscape operations cut back by 30%. The board is scheduled to vote on the plan March 14.

“We’re kind of taking a wait-and-see attitude,” said Mike Robinson, a spokesman for the Yorba Linda district. “We don’t want to kick in a program before we need to.”

The plan would also give the board the power to make the conservation measures mandatory and to force some customers to cut water consumption by as much as 50% if the drought worsens. Customers would be penalized via surcharges on their water bills.

The Yorba Linda Water District serves about 60,000 residents and businesses in most of Yorba Linda and parts of Placentia, Anaheim, Brea and unincorporated areas in North County.

The district gets about 60% of its water from the Metropolitan Water District. The remaining 40% currently comes from seven underground wells. An eighth well is being reactivated, and two additional wells are being constructed and will be operating by the end of the year, Robinson said.

The plan recommends that residents, businesses and public agencies reduce their consumption in phases. The first phase would restrict lawn-watering and other landscaping from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The plan also asks residents and businesses to stop hosing down sidewalks, driveways, buildings or walls except for public health reasons and to turn off decorative fountains and refrain from filling pools, lakes and ponds.

In addition, the plan recommends that customers wash motor vehicles with hand-held buckets of water and install water-saving devices on shower heads, faucets and toilets. Restaurants would be asked to serve water only on request, and golf courses, nurseries and city landscapers would be asked to water no more frequently than every three days.

Robinson said that district officials believe customers will meet the conservation measures voluntarily. Even without the plan, customers had decreased their consumption by 6% to 7% in the latter part of 1990, he said.

Still, the plan provides for penalties should the board make the conservation measures mandatory, especially in the face of MWD fines. According to Yorba Linda Water District officials, they could be penalized about $108,000 for the period from April to June, even with a 15% water reduction.

Under a mandatory plan, customers exceeding water consumption limits would be charged $1.52 per 100 cubic feet of all water in excess of their allotted amount. The normal rate is $.61 per 100 cubic feet.

The plan also gives the board the power to enact emergency measures, including shutting off water at construction sites and banning new service connections. In addition, the board would be empowered to increase levels of conservation.