Burbank, Las Virgenes to Relax Tough Water Conservation Programs : Drought: Officials react to MWD plans to increase supplies. The Santa Clarita and Antelope valleys and city of San Fernando will be largely unaffected.

Hours after the Metropolitan Water District decided Tuesday to make more water available to parched cities, officials in Burbank and the Las Virgenes area said they plan to follow suit and relax strict mandatory conservation programs enacted to combat the persistent drought.

The MWD board, responding to rising reservoirs and heavy winter storms, voted unanimously to increase supplies to clients for the first time in more than a year, although the board emphasized that the drought is not over. MWD limits have forced many communities, including Los Angeles, to adopt water-rationing plans.

For customers served by the Burbank Public Service Department and the Las Virgenes Municipal Water District, both of which depend on the MWD for all of their water, the increased allotment will mean they can use about 40% more water than they are currently allowed.

But they will have to pay more for it. The MWD also approved a 20% rate increase that will be passed along to customers in the form of higher bills.

“It’s a good news and bad news scenario,” said C. Kent McClain, general manager of the Las Virgenes water district. “The good news is the MWD is giving us more water. The bad news is they are charging us more for it.”

Customers in the Las Virgenes district, which supplies water to Agoura Hills, Calabasas and Westlake Village, still will be required to reduce water consumption by about 17%, down from the 27% in force since last year. It’s unclear how the MWD rate increase will affect Las Virgenes customers.

In Burbank, officials said they will soon recommend that the City Council revise its water rationing guidelines from a mandatory 31% to a voluntary 17%. Fred Lantz, water systems manager for the Public Service Department, said the proposed reduction, if approved by the council, would take place April 1.

The rate increase will mean a 10% overall rise in customers’ water bills, Lantz said.

Three other areas--the city of San Fernando and the Santa Clarita and Antelope valleys--will be largely unaffected by Tuesday’s decision because they do not depend heavily on the MWD for their water.

In San Fernando, which has used its municipal wells to ride out the drought, the extra water will allow officials to cut back on the amount they now draw from underground, Public Works Director Mike Drake said. San Fernando depends on the MWD for about 25% of its water, and the rate increase will mean only an extra 50 cents on an average monthly bill.

In Santa Clarita, the increase in imported water will have little effect on conservation efforts, said Dick Kopecky, Santa Clarita’s deputy city engineer. Santa Clarita residents were never required to significantly cut water usebecause local purveyors compensated for the loss of imported water by drawing on local aquifers, which will now have a chance to recharge, he said.

However, a 1-year-old ordinance that prohibits hosing down pavements will remain in effect, he said. The ordinance also contains prohibitions against watering lawns between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m., but those are in effect only during the dry season, from mid-March to mid-November.

The Antelope Valley gets most of it water through the Antelope Valley-East Kern Water Agency, another state water contractor, and thus does not directly rely on the MWD as the rest of the county does. However, both agencies are similarly affected by state water supplies.

The only mandatory water conservation program in the Antelope Valley also may be relaxed. Los Angeles County officials who operate the municipal water systems in Lancaster and other areas of the high desert said Tuesday they were reconsidering their mandatory 20% cutback policy.

Rod Kubomoto, water conservation director for the Los Angeles County Waterworks Districts, said his agency likely will make some adjustments based on the state’s water supply. However, the ultimate decision on any change would rest with county supervisors.

Nine of the county’s 16 waterworks districts, and about 60% of their 250,000 customers, are in the Antelope Valley. Since June, county customers have been required to reduce their water use by 20% or face bill surcharges.

Times staff writers Greg Braxton, John Chandler and Tracey Kaplan contributed to this story.