SAN GABRIEL VALLEY AND THE DROUGHT : Pasadena Imposes 10% Cut in Water Use

Water users in Pasadena will have to cut back consumption by 10% from 1989 levels beginning this summer or face fines.

The water-use reductions were approved by the City Council on Monday. Also approved was the idea of providing cash rebates or other incentives to water users who conserve more than the required 10%. High-volume users could pay more for water under a three-tiered rate structure.

The exact amount of the cash rebates and the third-tier water rates have yet to be devised. The city water department staff will return in two weeks with those proposals.

The plan was approved despite opposition from Councilman William Thomson, who said the third rate would hit hardest those with extensive landscaping. “I think we’ve done something either meaningless or dishonest or both,” Thomson said.

But Councilman Rick Cole said the third rate would “send a signal to high water users” that conservation is a necessity.

The current two-tiered water prices would not change under the new rates. In the summer, the average low-use residential customer pays 40 cents per 100 cubic feet, or 748 gallons, for the first 11,220 gallons of water each two months and 87 cents for each 748 gallons thereafter.

A third rate of $1.62 was proposed by the city’s Utility Advisory Commission, but the exact rate and at what level it would take effect have not been decided.

The water-use reductions will probably go into effect July 1, after notices are sent to all water users, said David Plumb, water department general manager.

Under the plan approved by the council, fines of up to $3 per each 748 gallons used over the 10% conservation level will be automatically added to the bimonthly bill.

The fines will also apply to city departments. Cole chastised city administrators for failing to conserve enough during the drought. Although a city report showed a 27% decrease in city water usage in the first three months of this year compared with the same period in 1989, Cole noted that most of that decrease resulted from conservation by the city’s electric department alone.

But Councilman William Paparian asked for caution after one city staff member said water conservation efforts mean the flowers will be torn out of the City Hall courtyard.

* The La Verne City Council unanimously passed an urgency ordinance Monday exempting athletic parks from its water conservation ordinance, which had cut watering of landscaped areas by 50%.

City Manager Martin R. Lomeli said that “with private yards going brown, there needs to be a place for people to play.” Public Works Director Brian Bowcock said the measure was prompted by a desire to ensure that the field at Bonita Park is in good shape for an upcoming invitational soccer meet.

* For the second time this year, the Monrovia City Council backed away from mandatory water rationing, despite the fact that the city’s ground-water wells are at their lowest point in history.

On Tuesday, Public Works Director Robert Sandwick recommended that the city impose 10% mandatory water rationing. But the council voted to hold off until next month, when a new computer program will be able to determine which residents are voluntarily conserving 10% from their water usage in 1989-1990.

Sandwick said Monrovia and West Covina are the only San Gabriel Valley cities without mandatory rationing.

Times staff writer Vicki Torres and free-lance writers Brad Haugaard and Karen E. Klein contributed to this story.