SAN GABRIEL VALLEY AND THE DROUGHT : Pasadena Refuses to Impose Rationing

For the second time, Pasadena officials have balked at imposing water rationing.

On Tuesday, several City Council members called across-the-board cutbacks proposed for all water users unfair. Councilmen Rick Cole, Isaac Richard and Chris Holden objected that water wasters would find it easier to meet a 10% or 15% mandatory cutback than would water conservers.

“Where is the equity if one neighbor is running his water sprinkler for four minutes a week and the other neighbor is running his water sprinkler for 45 minutes?” Cole said. “It does not seem like the same kind of fairness.”

Water department staff members had given council members a revised plan calling for a voluntary 10% reduction from 1989 consumption levels. If users failed to comply, the plan called for mandatory 15% reductions beginning in August.

Cutbacks are necessary because the city faces a 30% reduction in the amount of water it receives from the Metropolitan Water District, said George Morrow, Pasadena’s utility resource planning manager.

Tim Brick, chairman of the Pasadena Utility Advisory Commission and an MWD board member, urged mandatory rationing. “My concern is that this be seen as the kind of crisis that it really is,” Brick said. “We’re not leading here in our response to the drought. We are lagging behind other cities.’

The council set a special meeting to discuss conservation, at 6:30 p.m. May 20.

* The La Verne City Council decided Monday to allow owners of the city’s eight mobile home parks, whose rents are controlled by the city, to pass along part of any fines incurred because of excessive water use.

Park owners whose tenants do not have individual water meters can pass along 75% of all fines. Parks in which tenants have individual water meters connected to a master meter can be charged according to their actual usage. Individually metered tenants who use less than 3,000 gallons a month will be exempt from surcharges.