MWD Fines District for Exceeding Share : Water: Las Virgenes official says the Westlake reservoir was half-empty and had to be refilled to avoid health and fire hazards.

The Las Virgenes Municipal Water District exceeded its allotment of Metropolitan Water District supplies in February and March--receiving a $78,642 fine and the distinction of being the only one of 27 MWD users to overdraw its allocation.

But a district official said Friday that the overdraft was deliberate and necessary to refill the district’s Westlake reservoir, which was nearly half empty. Residents of the district--stretching from Hidden Hills to within a mile of Malibu--actually cut their water use by more than 20% during the two months, district spokeswoman Diane Eaton said.

“Last summer and through the long, hot fall that would not go away we used the water that was stored in the reservoir,” Eaton said. “We need that water for emergencies.”

The district, which relies totally on MWD water, was concerned that if the reservoir dropped any lower it would create a health and fire hazard, she said. Underground water supplies in the area are unreliable and carry too many minerals to be drinkable, she said, which is why the 33-year-old district was formed.

Portions of the fine may be passed on to water users in the form of higher water bills, Eaton said, although the district expects that much of the money will be recovered in coming months when it uses less than its MWD allotment.

During the first two months of the cutback incentive program, the MWD assessed just one fine and awarded $7 million in rebates as consumers cut their use by 44% with the help of the March rains.

In February, the Las Virgenes district used 33% more than its allotment of 1,334 acre-feet, MWD spokesman Bob Gomperz said. An acre-foot of water serves about two families for a year.

The February overuse in Las Virgenes would have meant a $173,000 fine, Gomperz said. But in March, the district used 16% less than its allotment, reducing the fine by more than half.

Thirteen of the 27 agencies in Southern California served by the MWD failed to meet their February allotments, Gomperz said. But all the others compensated for it in March.

Eaton said the district had hoped to refill its 9,000-acre-foot reservoir through voluntary rationing alone, beginning in November. When that failed, the district turned to the MWD supplies and to mandatory rationing.

Since February, the district has been enforcing 27% mandatory water rationing, Eaton said, with the first fines for failure to ration scheduled to arrive in the May water bills. Overall, she said, the 17,000 customers cut their use 20% in February and 60% during rainy March.

The district also has provided treated waste water for irrigation for more than a decade.

The Las Virgenes area has grown rapidly, with the water district hooking up 3,500 new customers in 1990. But Gomperz said the regional allotments were based on a formula that took population growth into account.

Water USAGE IS DOWN: B1