MWD Will End Water Rationing : Conservation: District says drought is not over but mandatory cuts are no longer necessary. Local agencies are expected to ease restrictions on consumers.

Signaling an end to the longest period of water rationing in local history, Southern California’s biggest water supplier voted Friday to cancel mandatory conservation.

The Metropolitan Water District--which warned that the 6-year-old drought is far from over--announced that recent rains, successful conservation programs and an increased water allocation from the state had left the area with sufficient reserves to make it through the year.

Consequently, officials said, mandatory rationing is not necessary. In its place, the MWD board called for a voluntary 10% cutback beginning Wednesday by the 27 smaller agencies that buy water wholesale from the MWD, which serves six counties in Southern California.

The vote, taken as another rainy day soaked the Southland, is expected to prompt a ripple effect in the more than 300 communities from Ventura County to the Mexican border included in the MWD’s territory.

In essence, the MWD’s action will free up more water for its institutional customers, allowing them to ease restrictions on consumers.

The MWD’s turnaround comes after one of California’s wettest spells in years. Figures show that statewide precipitation is about 85% of normal, compared to 35% of normal at this time last year. Runoff from winter storms in the Sierra Nevada--the chief source of Southern California’s water--is at 40% of normal, compared to last year’s 15%.

February’s storms carried so much water that rainfall in some Southern California counties totaled more than 100% of normal, prompting Santa Barbara to declare an end to the drought this month.

Faced with improving conditions, the MWD announced more than two weeks ago that it will make more water available to its customers. On Friday, the huge water agency decided to loosen things up even more.

More than 200 cities, including Los Angeles, have adopted some mandatory rationing rules during the past two years. While some have lifted water restrictions, most have conservation programs in effect.

Mark Stadler, spokesman for the San Diego County Water Authority, said the MWD decision to end mandatory water conservation has no significant effect on San Diego County water agencies because the San Diego agencies had voluntarily complied with MWD’s cutback requests.

“We never exceeded our allocation, so none of our member agencies had to pay fines,” Stadler said.

He noted that San Diego water customers will still be asked to voluntarily cut back water consumption by 10% until a sixth aqueduct line is completed next year. Until that line is completed, increasing by 35% the amount of water delivered to San Diego County, “we will still remain at risk for what we call structural drought,” Stadler said.

In Orange County, Irvine Ranch Water District General Manager Ronald Young called the MWD decision “the beginning of welcome relief.”

Young said his agency probably will act at its April meeting to scale back a program that has required people to cut water use by 20%.

In Los Angeles, City Council members predicted that the move would encourage an easing of restrictions for residents who have spent the past year grousing about short showers and brown lawns.

“I think there’s no question we’re going to roll back (mandatory rationing) in some form,” said Los Angeles Councilwoman Joan Milke Flores, who added that the council is to vote Tuesday on whether to ease its mandated 15% cutbacks.

“It’s difficult for us to charge penalties for water when we’ve had so much rain,” she said. “As I talk to people, they’re asking: ‘When are we going to get off this rationing kick?’ ”

But she said some council members--herself included--remain reluctant to do away with penalties, fearing that such a move might encourage a return to water-guzzling habits.

At least one MWD board member shared those concerns.

“We don’t want the public to think they can go back to their former ways, because in the long term we don’t have enough water,” said Christine Reed, Santa Monica’s representative to the MWD. Reed, who among the 30 MWD board members at Friday’s special meeting cast the sole vote against lifting mandatory conservation, said she is afraid that the decision might foster the misconception that the drought is over.

“Water is available right now, this year, so we’re going to sell it,” Reed said. “But we can’t promise anyone that this quantity of water will be available next year.

“Yes, for families this means that you can take longer showers and plant flowers and water your lawn again,” she said. “But it isn’t going to go on forever. This is a one-time-only deal.”

Other officials said the decision was necessary if local water officials are to maintain credibility with the public. It has been 14 months since the MWD imposed mandatory conservation on its customers, enforcing the restrictions with fines that tripled the normal charge for water.

“The point we made to the board was that the public has been very responsive, and we need to play square with them,” said MWD Assistant General Manager Duane Georgeson.

The MWD throughout the spring has been gradually easing its water restrictions as continued rain locally reduced the demand for MWD water, and as precipitation in Northern California prompted the state Department of Water Resources to be less stingy with its allocations to the MWD and other agencies.

Times staff writers Mark Landsbaum and Tom Gorman contributed to this story.