Oxnard Is Expected to Order Limits on Water Use : Drought: The City Council faces pressure to adopt a tough plan to avoid fines from the city’s main supplier.

The Oxnard City Council is expected today to adopt a water-rationing ordinance limiting residents to 80 gallons of water per person per day effective immediately. The amount would decrease to 70 gallons starting April 2.

The ordinance differs from most in the county in that it rations water by person rather than household. It also would approve jail time for repeated violators.

The ordinance allows the council to adopt further cutbacks to 50 gallons per person per day if supplies continue to dwindle because of the ongoing statewide drought.

The rationing plan was rushed through after a March 4 decision by the city’s main water supplier to cut back deliveries by 30%. The plan establishes penalties of $5 for every 748 gallons, or 100 cubic feet, of use in excess of the monthly allocation.

“The current emergency conditions require that the City Council establish water use and allocation regulations . . . until the drought ceases,” said City Atty. Gary Gillig, author of the ordinance. “More stringent conservation measures may be imposed . . . if made necessary by the city’s water suppliers and the continuing drought.”

The City Council is under pressure to adopt a rationing plan with severe cutbacks to avoid fines from Oxnard’s main water supplier, the Calleguas Municipal Water District.

The ordinance would also establish 20% cutbacks for agricultural, commercial and industrial users as well as separate landscape allocations, based on the customer’s consumption from July, 1989, through June, 1990. The cutbacks would be increased to 30% starting April 2.

Residential units in which landscape water is provided on the domestic meter will receive a minimum of 10 extra gallons a day. Housing complexes with more than one building will receive an additional two gallons a day for each additional building.

Irrigation of landscaping under the proposed ordinance would be limited to no more than once a week, according to a schedule to be proposed by the Public Works Department and adopted by City Council resolution.

If the ordinance is violated more than three times, penalties would double. After a fifth violation, the Public Works Department would be allowed to install a flow-restricting device or to disconnect water service altogether. The ordinance also allows the city to fine a person wasting water or violating the ordinance up to $600 or impose a sentence of 30 days in County Jail.

Exempt from the ordinance are consumers who can prove upon appeal that the proposed water reductions would cause them undue hardship.

Businesses and industrial firms could also seek exemptions from their quotas if they need more water for new construction or increasing industrial production.

They would also receive a waiver if they expanded operations, if they already meet industry standards for low water use or if the required reductions would result in the loss of jobs.

Agricultural customers could claim waivers if they increased their planted property.

Unlike that of the neighboring city of Ventura, the Oxnard plan includes no provision to impose a building moratorium for the duration of its water-shortage emergency.

“The city will continue to aggressively pursue gaining additional allotments of water for all new connections that have been added since July 1, 1990,” said Julie Fernandez, management analyst in the city’s Public Works Department.

Other exemptions are provided for water use due to illness or to maintain health; for the initial filling of new swimming pools; for changes in vacancies in multifamily complexes; and as needed to prevent safety hazards.

The total conservation plan is expected to cost the city about $680,000 this year, including a $150,000 public relations program. Last week the council approved adding seven new positions to handle the program.

If the ordinance is adopted as expected, Oxnard would become the first supplier in the county to ration water on a per-person basis. Ventura, which adopted its rationing plan last March, limits water use to a fixed amount per household, although adjustments are available.

Oxnard will use census figures to determine the number of people per household.

The Calleguas Municipal Water District, which supplies most of Oxnard, Camarillo and eastern Ventura County with imported water, has chosen to make straight percentage cuts based on prior use.

But local city officials say Oxnard, the county’s biggest and most densely populated city, would be better served with an individual quota system.

“When we talk about a 30% cutback, we’re talking about a significant reduction, and the only way to be fair is with person allocations,” City Manager Vern Hazen told the council last week.

Oxnard’s rationing ordinance was prompted by a decision by the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California to cut back water supplies to urban users by 30%. Oxnard receives two-thirds of its water supply from the MWD.