Parks, Businesses Take Measures to Ride Out Drought : Conservation: Non-residential water users from Magic Mountain to Cal State Northridge have helped reduce overall consumption 30%.

In April, 1990, when Magic Mountain unveiled its brand-new Viper roller coaster, thrill seekers feasted their eyes on a bright orange serpentine monster that scaled 18 stories and stretched over 3,830 feet of terrifying track.

But just as important was what they did not see: a surrounding landscape of lush, verdant vegetation--an idea scrapped by park executives in the ride’s planning stages because of the excessive amount of water needed to maintain the vegetation. Instead, the jungle theme was jettisoned in favor of a desert setting, complete with rocks and cacti.

Viper became more rattlesnake than python.

The park’s decision reflects efforts by San Fernando Valley-area companies toward reducing water use as Southern California squirms in the iron grip of a crippling five-year drought. In the city of Los Angeles in 1988, the last year such statistics were available, non-residential water use accounted for nearly 30% of total consumption.

The potential savings among non-residential customers are therefore significant, said Tom Jamentz, manager of water conservation with the Department of Water and Power.

Exact figures are not available. The amount saved by businesses, however, represents a sizable portion of a 30% drop in consumption from 1986 levels recorded monthly by the DWP since mandatory rationing went into effect this year, officials said.

Accordingly, many large non-residential water users--from theme parks to breweries, foundries to universities--are making an extra effort to hoard an ever-dwindling resource.

“They’re changing in order to save water,” Jamentz said. “That’s what we want everyone to do.”

At Magic Mountain, which receives its water from the Valencia Water Co., “water concerns are in the top of our mind now when we theme an attraction,” park spokeswoman Bonnie Rabjohn said. She added that conservation has been the rule since the Tidal Wave ride opened with a splash two years ago.

“With Tidal Wave you’d think of a lush, tropical island,” Rabjohn said. “But the theming was sand, props and rocks to give it that feel without using a lot of plants that would require a lot of water.”

In the Valley, one of the largest non-residential users of water is Cal State Northridge--among the top 20 consumers in Los Angeles overall.

Alan G. MacDonald, CSUN’s energy management engineer, said the university uses about 270 million gallons of water a year--enough to keep 100 families well-supplied until the year 2007. Next to landscaping, the biggest guzzlers of water on campus are giant water-cooling towers that chill the air pumped through the university’s air-conditioning system.

Water now flows through the towers and evaporates during the cooling process. But following a procedure already adopted by Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, MacDonald hopes to eliminate the cooling towers altogether by drawing cold water from underground aquifers, running it through a modified cooling system, then injecting it back into the ground so that none of the water is lost.

MacDonald estimates that the process could save as much as 300,000 gallons of potable water a day--an amount likely to impress the DWP, which a few years ago would have been leery about allowing the university to tap the Valley’s ground water.

“The water basin under the San Fernando Valley has been sacrosanct for a number of years. Initially, I never thought we’d ever be able to do anything like this,” MacDonald said. But the worsening drought has made the DWP more flexible about possible conservation methods, he said.

A spokesman for the DWP said approval would be likely once the university finishes a study of the project’s feasibility, possibly by early next year.

In industrial Van Nuys many manufacturing facilities are changing the way they do business to scale back the amount of fresh water coursing through their pipes.

As with other water-heavy industrial plants, Superior Industries International, the nation’s largest manufacturer of aluminum wheels for the Big Three automakers, is required to cut its use by 10% rather than the 15% imposed in May on residences and most businesses. According to the DWP, Superior’s monthly allotment is still a whopping 2.63 million gallons, but last month the company used 1.9 million gallons--a 35% drop from 1986 levels.

“If we continue to save what we did over the past six months,” plant manager Bernie O’Neil said, “I estimate we’ll save 10.9 million gallons from last year.”

Liquid reduction also translates into liquid assets.

O’Neil estimated the cost of water per wheel is down by nearly 25%--no small savings for a facility that produces 1.5 million wheels annually.

“Any company that has any kind of sense is going to look for every way they can to save money” by saving water, Jamentz of the DWP said. “It may cost a little bit up front, but they’ll save it on the back end.”

The Superior plant relies on upgraded recycling systems to shrink the deluge of water that would otherwise vanish down the drain, he said. In a three-step process used to clean the wheels, for example, a system instituted last year dishes excess water from the final rinsing tank and puts it back into the first two.

At the Easton Aluminum plant about a block away, a similar “counterflow” system saves that company 12,500 gallons daily, nearly enough for 200 people each to take a 10-minute shower.

“We use that water to the last drop,” Easton maintenance coordinator Ryan Jay said.

The plant’s “quenching tanks,” where Easton’s famous aluminum baseball bats go for a cool dip after intensive heat treatment, were modified six months ago to save an additional 15,000 gallons a day. “They’re the biggest consumers,” Jay said of the quenching tanks, “and yet they’re the biggest savers now.”

The company has also successfully tested a chemical that, when added to the tanks, will allow repeated use of the water by keeping its temperature down, company executives said. The company plans to begin using the chemical regularly in a couple of months.

The next step for Easton is working out a deal with the DWP for using reclaimed water for everything from its quenching tanks to its cooling towers.

In the southeastern San Fernando Valley, the DWP has already agreed to pipe reclaimed sewage water directly to Universal City, in addition to two cemeteries and a golf course, for irrigation. About 5.2 miles of pipeline will begin delivering the reclaimed water in November.

DWP officials say this $4.6-million program, known as the Greenbelt Project, will ultimately save about 525 million gallons a year.

Larry Spungin, president of MCA Development at Universal City, said the corporation has spent about $500,000 to retrofit its water-distribution system, but the DWP will supply the reclaimed water at a discounted rate.

“We’re laying out the money today, and we hope that the discount will allow a pay-back over some period of years,” he said.

And lest anyone discount the effectiveness of low-flow shower heads and toilets--the conservation gospel preached so often to residential consumers--Valley Presbyterian Hospital in Van Nuys has watched its water usage shrivel by about 25% since it began installing such water-saving devices last summer.

The hospital now saves an average of 1 million gallons a month.

All of which makes water officials gush.

“It’s obvious that people are really trying to do their part,” Jamentz said. “It’s wonderful--just magnificent.”

Saving Water at Superior Industries International

Water Usage

Superior Industries International, Inc., a Van Nuys company that manufactures aluminum wheels for major auto makers, uses about 1.9 million gallons a month, or 22.8 million gallons a year. By comparison, a household of four uses, on average, 164,250 gallons a year (about 450 gallons of water a day).

Allotments

Superior Industries is allowed to use 2.64 million gallons a month (under the 10% mandatory cutback imposed by the city for water-intensive businesses).

Going by this, Superior is permitted to use enough water each month to supply 16 households for an entire year.

Savings

Superior Industries is using only 72% of its allotment, for a savings of 740,000 gallons a month.

The amount Superior saves each month could supply one household for 4 1/2 years.

Source: Department of Water and Power