It’s Official: State Once Again in a Drought : Water: Winter precipitation was below levels seen during recent six-year dry period.

State water officials on Thursday reported that the winter of 1993-94 was one of the driest this century, confirming that California is again experiencing a drought.

With the end of the official rainy season on Thursday, state and local agencies said that snowpack and other measures were lower than the totals realized in the drought that lasted from 1987 through 1992.

Still, this winter’s low precipitation figures will not immediately translate into the brown lawns or mandatory cutbacks that marked the recent six years of drought because the state’s reservoirs are well supplied, officials said.

In Ventura County, many residents get their water from local reservoirs that are full or nearly full even though rainfall countywide is 73% of normal, said an official with the flood control district.

Renewed conservation efforts would be likely only if the Metropolitan Water District significantly reduces its allocations to the Calleguas Municipal Water District in the coming year, said Susan Nielsen, Calleguas’ director of engineering.

Calleguas provides water to nearly 500,000 customers in Simi Valley, Thousand Oaks, Moorpark, Camarillo and parts of Oxnard.

Though many reservoirs are near capacity, some water officials fear that could change over the next month or two if unseasonably warm weather prevails.

“Everyone is concerned,” said Mike Young, chief of operations for MWD, which supplies 60% of all the water consumed in the six-county region of Southern California.

Runoff in the key watersheds on both the eastern and western slopes of the Sierra Nevada is expected to be only about half of normal, causing officials to classify the year as “critically dry.” Most of the state’s water supply arrives in the rains and snows of December, January and February, and virtually all meaningful precipitation falls by April 1.

The figures were down significantly from just one month ago, as warm weather melted much of the existing snowpack and little new precipitation accumulated.

“It’s pretty bad,” said Matt Colwell, a state Department of Water Resources hydrologist. “If it’s dry in April, things will get worse.”

Hydrologists like Colwell said they are not sure whether 1994 marks the beginning of a new drought or simply a continuation of the dry period that began in 1987. Last year’s heavy rains, which resulted in the easing of mandatory conservation efforts, may have been an anomaly, Colwell said.

The state’s preliminary plan is to allocate supplies from the State Water Project in the Sacramento River Delta at 50% of water agencies’ requests. The State Water Project is a series of canals and waterways that collect and distribute runoff from the Sierra Nevada, the primary water source for most of California.

“The state is trying to hold to the 50% level,” said Young. “But that’s the limit of their ability. If it stays dry in April and May, it will be very close.”

Douglas Wheeler, state secretary for resources, said Thursday that he remains committed to the allocation formula. “The situation would be critical but for the strong reservoir supplies,” Wheeler said.

Any cutback by the state would have a ripple effect through hundreds of Southern California communities. The MWD, which imports water from the State Water Project, supplies water to scores of smaller, local agencies. Any reduction in its supplies from the state would have to be passed along or taken out of emergency underground storage supplies.

Officials for several local agencies said Thursday that they plan to significantly increase their MWD purchases.

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, for instance, is planning to buy about seven times as much water from the MWD as it did just a few years ago. Runoff in the department’s watershed in the Owens Valley of the Eastern Sierra Nevada is only about 50% of normal and is further affected by court rulings restricting use of water in environmentally sensitive areas.

MWD officials said they are confident they will be able to meet their customers’ demands.

Even if the state gets by this year, officials are already concerned about the impact it will have on next year.

Times staff writer David Haldane in Orange County and correspondent Kay Saillant in Ventura contributed to this story.