Governor’s Water Use Exceeds Expectations

As far as Gov. Pete Wilson is concerned, he has set an example that everyone should follow for a conservation-minded state facing its fifth year of drought.

He doesn’t leave the water running when he shaves.

He confines himself to Navy showers, turning on the water only to wet down and then again to rinse off the soap.

Since early March, he has ordered the Department of General Services, which tends his lawns and shrubs, to stop watering the landscape at his home.

So it came as a shock Tuesday when the Arcade Water District released figures that showed Wilson’s residence in a Sacramento suburb had used 69,000 gallons during the first two months of 1991. That translates into 1,170 gallons per day--an amount for two people living in a single-family residence that exceeded the state average, the Sacramento average and even his neighborhood average.

The Associated Press said district figures showed that the average usage in the same two-month period at 11 other residences in the neighborhood was 26,000 gallons.

Asked for an explanation, Bill Livingstone, the governor’s press secretary, could only speculate that the high water usage must have been the fault of the General Services Department groundskeepers. Inside the house, he said, Wilson and his wife, Gayle, could only have used a minimal amount.

“We are checking with them (General Services Department officials) on why they think so much water has been used,” he told the Associated Press.