IRVINE : UCI Looks for Ways to Cut Water Use

With higher water rates and mandatory cutbacks looming, UC Irvine, one of the county’s largest water consumers, is scrambling to find ways to cut back water use, university officials said.

But because UCI has been conserving water for years, some fear that the university could be unfairly penalized by further cutbacks, and that added conservation measures could jeopardize the campus’s growth and possibly curtail future instruction and research.

“We’re going to have problems no matter how much we cut back. If we could have cut back before, we would have,” said UCI Director of Facilities Larry Givens. “As a public institution, we’ll do whatever we can to meet the crisis, (but) there is not a lot of waste in water, so to have a mandatory cutback would . . . impact in education and research.”

Officials of UCI and the Irvine Ranch Water District have met frequently since the beginning of February to discuss conservation measures and to attempt to set a standard level of consumption for the campus. The water district has tentative plans for the implementation on May 1 of new tiered rates that reward conservation and severely penalize waste.

Last year UCI, which gets all its water from the Irvine Ranch Water District, used 580 million gallons of water at a cost of around $450,000.

Water district spokesman Greg Heiertz said that the district is mandating 20% cutbacks in water use and that “we’re looking at UCI to do its part.”

“There’s no question that they’ll be cutting (at least) 5 to 10%,” said Dick Diamond, water district finance projects coordinator. “Once we get a feel for how they’re using water, then we’ll come up with certain cutbacks, and should they go over that, their rates will increase. We’ll make sure it’s as fair and equitable as we can, (but) it’s hard to do it with a complete lack of hardship.”

Givens said the campus has had an aggressive conservation program in place since the university opened. The university uses reclaimed water for half of its irrigation, has low-flow shower heads in most of the dorms and apartments, and is installing them now wherever possible, he said.

Givens said that further conservation will be tough.

“We have certain goals here for education and research that we have to work on and we don’t want to jeopardize those goals. If you cut back too far, you’re cutting back water in academic buildings. Professors have millions of dollars of grants that they might be working on and then you’ll cut off their water,” he said.

The most likely cutbacks will occur in domestic water irrigation, which accounts for 14% of the total campus use, Givens said. Cuts there could cost the university tens of thousands of dollars worth of trees and other landscaping, he added.

If the university has to pay more for water because residents are not conserving enough, “given all the other budget problems we have, yes, (the costs) would be passed on,” said Executive Vice Chancellor Bill Parker.