County Declares Drought Emergency, Will Seek State Aid

Seeking to send a clear, countywide message about the drought, the San Diego County Board of Supervisors unanimously voted Tuesday to declare a local state of emergency and vowed to ask Gov. Pete Wilson to make disaster relief available, particularly to the county’s struggling farmers.

The plan, presented by Supervisor Susan Golding, directed the county’s chief administrative officer to work with the San Diego County Water Authority and its 23 member agencies to get ready for the 50% cutback in water deliveries that begins April 1.

Tuesday’s action could lead to county-imposed water restrictions that would supersede water-saving plans adopted by cities and other water districts. Board members stressed that they have no desire to usurp the rights of other government entities.

“It is not the intent of this action that we make the decisions that cities should rightfully make,” Golding said. “Any concern about the county usurping powers belonging to cities . . . is not only premature, but unnecessary.”

But the underlying message of the day seemed clear: if push comes to shove, the county action will prevail.

“The message is: we’re all in this together,” Supervisor Brian Bilbray said. “No one is going to be able to walk away from this. I don’t care what city or district you’re from. . . . There are a whole lot of lifestyle changes we’re talking about here. Let’s face it--it’s very possible that the new status (symbol) on the block is who has the brownest lawn.”

Last week, when the board’s intention to assume ultimate control of decisions involving water was made public, officials from the city of San Diego chafed openly. The city, which is the county’s biggest water customer, is alone among the authority’s member agencies to have adopted voluntary--not mandatory--conservation measures.

Paul Downey, a spokesman for Mayor Maureen O’Connor, said the city attorney would be directed to examine the legality of the county proposal.

But, on Tuesday, legal counsel for the county and for the County Water Authority agreed that the county action would supersede city measures.

County counsel Lloyd Harmon Jr. acknowledged that cities and water districts have special powers. But he said that an 11-year-old opinion issued by the state attorney general indicated that the county could make a declaration that “would be applicable within the cities within the county.”

Paul Engstrand, the water authority’s general counsel, said he agrees with Harmon and the attorney general’s opinion.

“I share their views and consider that (the supervisors’ action) applies to everyplace in San Diego County,” he said.

Ted Bromfield, a chief deputy city attorney for the city of San Diego, said Tuesday that he believes the city of San Diego has the right to structure its own response to the water shortage. But he said that, until the county actually orders the city to do something it doesn’t want to do, it would be inappropriate for counsel to argue.

“The county hasn’t yet said, ‘Stop issuing water meters,’ ” he said, referring to one of the many proposed prohibitions included in the state of emergency declaration. “It’s not prudent to comment until there is a conflicting posture between the county and city. To my knowledge, there is none at this point.”

The suggested measures put forward in the supervisors’ declaration are identical to those released Monday by the County Water Authority staff. The measures, entitled the Emergency Drought Response Program, will be taken up by the authority’s board later this week.

They would prohibit most outdoor sprinkling systems countywide, would ban most carwashing except in commercial carwashes and would limit new development by disallowing the issuance of most new water meters. They would also ban the filling of swimming pools and ornamental fountains and would limit irrigation with a hand-held hose to certain hours--under most circumstances, no outdoor watering would be allowed between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m.

Before they took action Tuesday, the supervisors heard from representatives of the building and construction industries, from a local farm group and an apartment association. All of them spoke in favor of the emergency declaration. Alan Smith, the director of government affairs for the San Diego Apartment Assn., lauded the supervisors for considering action that he said would help apartment owners and dwellers.

“The crazy quilt of 23 different water agencies makes no sense,” he said, noting that some members of his group who own buildings in several districts are completely bewildered by the varying regulations. “Confusion has become the order of the day. There’s a lot of anger.”

A spokesman for the San Diego County Farm Bureau said that his group supported the board action in part because local farmers are tired of being criticized by their Northern California colleagues for being lax on conservation.

“This will send a message to the state of California that we in Southern California are serious about saving water,” the spokesman said.