Calabasas Couple Files Suit to Increase Water Allotment : Drought: The action contends that Las Virgenes’ rationing plan discriminates against new residents in the West Valley.

A Calabasas couple sued the Las Virgenes Municipal Water District in U.S. District Court on Tuesday, charging that water-rationing rules unfairly discriminate against new residents of the western San Fernando Valley.

The suit by Robert Ross, an attorney, asked for an increased water allotment on the grounds that the rationing plan adopted by the district in January grants new residents only 70% as much water as the average customer in the hottest months.

Ross said his family has been forced to extreme lengths in order not to exceed their limit. Customers who exceed their legal allotment in three billing periods can lose their water service altogether.

“My kids are showering alternative days, and we are using paper plates because we are afraid to use the water to wash the dishes,” Ross said. “It’s not the amount of dollars involved--it’s the threat of not having any water.”

The Las Virgenes district’s rationing plan--which applies to more than 17,000 customers in Agoura Hills, Calabasas, Hidden Hills and Westlake Village--limits residents to 73% of their 1990 use.

For residents of new homes, where no water was used in 1990, the district set limits of 3,800 cubic feet for each two-month period between November and April, and 5,200 cubic feet per period between May and October.

Ross contends the limits on new customers are “arbitrary and capricious,” discriminating against new customers.

During the final two months of the summer last year, the average single-family residence used 10,000 cubic feet of water, said Michael Garrick, director of finance and administration for the district. That means the average family is legally entitled to 7,300 cubic feet in the same period this year, Garrick said.

Garrick acknowledged that new customers receive less than the average family during the summer months. But he defended the limits, saying that no other district with mandatory rationing allowed residents to use so much water.

“There is no perfect system. The allotment numbers we have selected and used are really very reasonable and work quite well for the vast majority,” he said. “We do have some people who are adamantly insistent that they need more, but we are in a dire water shortage and the district just doesn’t have the water. Our process appears to be allocating more water than anywhere else.”

The city of Los Angeles, which also has mandatory water rationing, allows the owners of new residences to use 3,600 cubic feet of water every two months--the yearly average for single-family homes in the city--according to a Department of Water and Power spokesman. Both the L.A. Department of Water and Power and the Las Virgenes District have an appeals process for residents who believe they need more.

In December and January, before rationing began, Ross, his wife and their two children used about 10,900 cubic feet of water, the attorney said.

“We have a hillside to water or else it comes down. We live in a fire area. We have a swimming pool,” Ross said, explaining why he needs more water. “I want to know how they came up with that number in the first place.”

In addition to disputing the amount allotted to new customers, Ross questions whether he should be classified as a “new customer.”

Ross, who has lived in the house more than two years, is one of nearly 1,000 people in the Las Virgenes district who formerly received water from “master meters” in their housing tracts, and thus have no separate billing records of water use on their individual properties for 1990.

For two years, Ross’ water was paid for by the developer of his 75-unit housing tract. Now that the tract is finished, each house has had a separate water meter installed, and the property owners are responsible for the water bills.

But the district ruled that customers in Ross’ tract are “new customers” who must abide by the new customer limit. Ross believes he is entitled to 1/75th of the water used by the master meter in his tract last year.

“They should take the water used by the developer for the master meter and divide by 75,” he said.

Up to 1,000 people have switched from master meters to individual meters in the past year, and many have echoed Ross’ complaints, but the district has no choice but to treat them as new customers, Garrick said.

“The homeowners are drawing a very naive conclusion that it’s a simple arithmetic process to divide up the amount of water that ran through a master meter. But water that goes through a master meter is used for a whole lot of purposes other than just the homes,” he said.

“It’s used for landscaping major common areas, construction.”