Ventura Cuts Water Use by 25% in Last 12 Months : Rationing: The public’s response pleases city officials. Efforts to conserve ranged from the mundane to the mighty.

A year after the Ventura City Council passed the first mandatory water rationing ordinance in the county, city homes and businesses have reduced water consumption by 25%.

The ordinance, passed April 13, 1990, brought dramatic changes in the way the city manages its resources, the way manufacturers make their products and the way nearly all of Ventura’s 92,000 residents use the faucet.

Water rates increased by 44% and sewer rates by 27% for most single-family households so the city could make up for the decrease in water consumption and keep the system running.

The city gave away more than 15,000 low-flow shower heads. It revamped its entire computer system to handle the billing. And it has inspected more than 1,000 homes and businesses and advised water customers on conservation.

Now, as the ordinance enters its second year, city officials are proclaiming it a success.

“The public responded very well--outstanding,” Public Works Director Shelley Jones said. “We’re still doing good starting a second year, and I think that most people were amazed how much water they used to use and how easy it was to cut back. . . . I don’t think people feel guilty when they use water, but they certainly are more aware of water when they use it.”

In 1989, Ventura pumped 23,921 acre-feet of water from its wells, the Ventura River and Lake Casitas and delivered it to customers. In 1990, the city consumed only 19,249 acre-feet. One acre-foot equals 325,850 gallons of water.

Efforts to conserve ranged from the mundane to the mighty.

Residents Sharon and Robert Fleur said they used plastic soda bottles in their toilet tanks, free low-flow shower heads from the city and common sense.

By recycling bathwater, letting their lawn die and shortening their shower times, the Fleurs and their two children were able to cut consumption from 1,200 gallons a day to slightly less than 294 gallons a day, the standard city allotment for a family of four.

The Pepsi-Cola Bottling Co. on Ventura Avenue had a harder time meeting its allotment, said plant manager Bruce McDowell.

The plant was using 92,053 gallons per day around April 13, 1990, when the city had allotted it only 56,259 gallons per day, McDowell said. The plant found itself facing nearly $10,000 in fines.

Because 62% of the water that flows into the plant leaves in bottles, cans and tanks of Pepsi, the company had to find a way to conserve its other 38%. It spent $12,000 on water-recycling systems so it could reuse pipe-flushing water and equipment-cooling water that once had flowed into the sewer, he said.

Pepsi also worked with the city, which sent inspectors to examine the plant and recalculate its water consumption based on its actual needs, city water officials said.

Now, despite an annual increase in soft drink production of 5% to 7%, the plant has reduced its water use up to 17% on its most recent bill over the same two months last year, McDowell said.

The Ventura County Government Center faced fines of nearly $20,000 for using too much water at the county courthouse, jail and government office buildings.

During the first two-month billing period, the county was consuming approximately 299,200 gallons per day when it was allotted 236,866 gallons per day, said Arnold Robles, facilities manager.

So, the county stopped watering its greenery. It shut off its outdoor fountains. It installed water-saving aerators on more than 600 faucets. And it installed flow restrictors on all of its 882 toilets so they flushed five gallons at a time instead of six, Robles said.

The process cost $50,000 but the water consumption was reduced to approximately 112,200 gallons per day, and the city erased the fines, Robles said.

Water customers have not all been conserving quietly. The city’s water hot line has received more than 15,595 calls in the past year from customers with questions, complaints and criticism, city spokeswoman Carol Green said.

Water customers initially resisted rationing.

“At first, people were saying, ‘I can’t do this,’ and now they find they can do it, and they’re not having to strain as much,” water hot line staff member Noreen Hays said. “People are kind of getting proud of themselves for staying under the allocation instead of fighting it like they did in the first stages of the program.”

One customer, Lindsey Nielson, filed a lawsuit in Ventura County Superior Court alleging that the city’s ordinance violated the California Environmental Quality Act and demanding a court injunction to stop the measure. But last week Nielson withdrew the suit, Mayor Richard Francis said.

Nielson could not be reached for comment.

“I think people realized . . . the metaphor ‘as cheap as water’ is not really true,” Francis said. Ventura residents have showed “an overwhelming positive response” to an ordinance, and now realize “there’s no such thing as a cheap resource, least of all water,” Francis said.

Single-family households are allotted 294 gallons per day for four members or more. Multifamily households such as apartments and condominiums are allotted 196 gallons per day for three people or more, and businesses are limited to 85% of their average usage for the previous three years.

Of 26,000 water customers citywide (89.7% of whom are residential and the rest commercial and institutional), 4,399 have asked for adjustments to their water allocations since last April, Green said. The city approved 3,838 of them, denied 551, and 10 are pending.

Meanwhile, the city has expanded its water-producing capacity and is exploring its options for the future, Water Division Supervisor John R. Mundy said.

This month the city began using a well in the Saticoy area, which can pump 2,400 gallons per minute, said Jones, the public works director.

But last week the United Water District sued the city of Ventura in Superior Court over plans to sink a second well near the first to draw water from the Santa Paula Basin.

The suit alleges the second well would overdraw the basin, from which United Water District gets some of its water. It also asks for an injunction to stop the well construction until after an environmental impact report is drafted.

Francis said the city announced four years ago it would construct the second well, and that United missed its chance to object to the project during the first six months of planning.

“We’d like to know the long- and short-term impact of pumping” the well, said Frederick J. Gientke, United’s general manager. “Our data definitely shows the basin to have been dropping, and over the past 10 years it’s been dropping drastically because of the drought.”

But Jones said the two wells combined would pump only 3,000 gallons per day most of the time and would be increased to full capacity only at peak times of need.

The March rains have eased the burden on Ventura’s water sources, which were being used at 100% capacity last year, Mundy said. Thanks to the rain, city water officials probably will be able to increase water allotments during the dry summer months, even though they had planned not to, he said.

The city has commissioned $1.2 million worth of studies on its current system and future options. The reports will be finished next spring, Mundy said.

“It’s been busy, it’s been challenging, rewarding, and frustrating,” Mundy said. “But I feel good overall that we’ve been able to accomplish a very difficult task. . . . I think down the road we’re going to be in a lot better shape than the rest of Southern California because we’re going to have a lot better sense of where we’re going and what we’re doing.”

CITY OF VENTURA WATER USE IN ACRE FEET

(One acre-foot equals 325,850 gallons of water)

1989 Annual Total: 23,921 acre feet 1990 Annual Total: 19,249 acre feet 1991:January: 1193 February: 1078