2 Cities End Mandatory Cuts in Water Consumption : Resources: Actions by Long Beach and Compton may create a chain reaction in the Southeast. The MWD last week relaxed its conservation requirements.

Long Beach and Compton have scrapped their mandatory water conservation programs, which imposed fines for excessive use, and more Southeast-area cities were expected to do the same as the benefits of the February storms began trickling down, officials said.

The cities’ action last week followed a decision by the Metropolitan Water District to relax its mandatory conservation program.

The MWD imports water from Northern California and the Colorado River and sells it to Long Beach, Compton and other cities and independent water agencies throughout Southern California. Because of the drought, the MWD last year began requiring its customers to reduce their use of imported water by a minimum of 20%, or face penalties.

The MWD Board of Directors decided on Tuesday to roll back the minimum conservation requirements to 10% after state officials announced that significantly more water would be available this year.

Area water officials welcomed the development and moved to pass on the benefits to their customers.

The Long Beach Water Commission voted Thursday to return to a voluntary water conservation program starting today, but to continue $25 fines for wasteful uses such as hosing down driveways.

“The public has supported us throughout,” Water Commissioner Charles A. Jones said.

Long Beach’s water department, which serves the great majority of the city, had required its residential customers to cut back water usage by 10%, and imposed cuts ranging from 15% to 20% on businesses and other non-residential users.

Overall, the city’s water customers have reduced their water consumption by about 20% since the mandatory program went into effect last March, said Dan Davis, general manager of the water department.

The Compton City Council repealed its mandatory conservation regulations on Tuesday. The program, which took effect last May, required residents and businesses to cut their water use by 10%. Overall, Compton customers met that goal, said Water Supt. Regina Murph.

“We had a good response from our citizens,” she said. “Now there will be no penalties, but we are still calling for responsible water use--no hose-washing of sidewalks. . . .”

Municipal and independent water companies supplying at least 18 other cities in the area also imposed mandatory conservation programs last year to help meet the MWD restrictions.

Most of Long Beach and the Southeast area rely on a combination of MWD water and ground water.

No conservation limits have been imposed on ground water. So municipal water departments and independent water companies that rely heavily on MWD water tended to impose more stringent conservation plans on their customers.

The Pico Rivera water department relies exclusively on relatively plentiful ground water supplies and never imposed a mandatory water conservation program on its customers.

Last October, Lakewood became the first city in the area to repeal its mandatory conservation ordinance after its residents and businesses reduced their water consumption by 28%. But Lakewood’s water department received only 10% of its water from the MWD.

Long Beach, on the other hand, gets about 60% of its water from the MWD and was one of the first cities to impose mandatory conservation.

As a result, the city never had to pay MWD penalties, said Dan Davis, general manager of the water department.

But water department customers paid $4.5 million in penalties for using too much water after the mandatory controls took effect, said Robert W. Cole, assistant manager of the department. The city also issued more than 800 of the $25 citations to residents and businesses for wasteful water uses.

Those penalties help make up for a $6-million revenue shortfall in the city water department brought about by conservation, Cole said.

The situation was similar in Compton. The city’s water department never paid any MWD fees but did fine some of its customers. Murph said she did not know the amount of penalties assessed by her department.

Other municipal water departments and independent water companies in the Southeast area buy MWD water through a middle agency, the Central Basin Municipal Water District. The agency rolled back its mandatory conservation program Tuesday, said general manager Richard W. Atwater. The district now requires the water departments and companies to reduce their use of imported water by a minimum of 10%, compared to 20% before.

The decision will be a boon to many local water agencies, some of which have been fined over the past year for using too much MWD water. Their customers should soon get a break as well.

“It’s definitely welcome news,” Bellflower spokesman Mike Egan said. “The tougher the drought situation the tougher it is on residents to scale back.”

Bellflower’s water department, for example, faces a $62,000 penalty for using too much MWD water during the last three months of 1991, according to Central Basin statistics. The same usage would draw a much smaller penalty under the new guidelines.

Bellflower’s water department buys MWD water and distributes it to six water companies that do business in the city. The penalty will probably be passed on to the responsible water companies, but Bellflower spokesman Mike Egan said the city is still trying to determine which companies used too much water.

Park Water Co. is one of the companies serving Bellflower. It also serves parts of Artesia, Bell Gardens, Compton, Lynwood, Norwalk and Santa Fe Springs. Park Water already has reduced its mandatory conservation requirement for its customers from 20% to 10%. General Manager Ted May estimated that about 10% of its customers were hit with penalties under the more stringent rules.

The state Department of Water Resources started the chain reaction last Monday, when it announced that because of recent heavy rains, it will nearly double the amount of water it will deliver to the MWD this year.

But despite heavy rains in some areas, officials warn that the drought appears to be entering its sixth year.

Figures released last week by the California Cooperative Snow Survey show that statewide precipitation is about 85% of normal this year, compared with 35% of normal at this time last year.

Atwater, the Central Basin general manager, cautioned that the more stringent conservation levels could be invoked again.

“The drought’s not over,” Atwater said. “If we have a hot summer, we may be asking people to conserve more again.”

Community correspondent Suzan Schill contributed to this article.