IRVINE : Blueprint for Water Saving Announced

A statewide coalition of water suppliers and local officials on Monday announced a blueprint for urban water conservation that could save enough water to serve several million people a year.

The historic conservation charter, a list of 16 measures to reduce water usage, came after two years of negotiations between Northern and Southern California water suppliers, as well as several environmental groups.

Water agencies that sign the charter will be bound to implement all the conservation practices in the communities they serve. Included are providing water audits for households, initiating leak-detection programs and requiring ultra low-flush toilets in households and governmental offices built after January, 1992.

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power is expected to be the first water agency to agree to implement the 16 measures. The agency is scheduled to sign the charter on Wednesday.

Also expected to sign are the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, which provides about half of Orange County’s water, the San Diego County Water Authority, the Contra Costa Water District, the East Bay Municipal Utility District and the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission.

The group that wrote the charter, the State Water Conservation Coalition, was created in 1989 to defuse a decades-old feud between water agencies in the northern and southern parts of California over the use of the state’s water supplies. It includes most of California’s urban and rural water providers.

The new charter was announced simultaneously in Irvine, home of the Southern California Water Committee, which is the southern arm of the partnership, as well as Concord, where the northern partner is based.

Water suppliers said that although Californians have voluntarily cut water usage during the 5-year drought, the charter will provide more reliable water savings in years to come.

Ventura County Supervisor John K. Flynn, a co-chairman of the coalition, called the agreement the “first water conservation plan that has teeth.”

Called a new “water ethic” for California, the plan could save as much as 500,000 to 1 million acre-feet of water per year. An acre-foot is enough to serve a family of five for one year.

Other measures in the charter include financial incentives for customers, landscape requirements for new and existing businesses and multifamily developments, educational programs in schools.

All the measures are well-proven conservation tools that can be implemented soon, said Diane Hail, a spokeswoman for the coalition. Each water agency would have to pay for the programs, and some might require new local ordinances.

The charter includes only urban conservation measures. An agreement for similar measures for agricultural water agencies is being developed by this fall.