Water officials seek feedback on restrictions

CITY HALL — Glendale Water & Power officials on Monday said they would delay bringing a revised mandatory water conservation ordinance to the City Council by four weeks to get more public feedback, despite the looming July 1 cutback in regional wholesale water allocations.

General Manager Glenn Steiger said the city would try to implement the ordinance in August — one month after the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California reduces water shipments to its member agencies by 10%. That means the city will rely on voluntary cutbacks from a community that has managed an overall reduction of only 4% so far.

If Glendale uses more than its allotment from MWD, it would have to pay three times as much for its water, according to the allocation plan.

“Voluntary conservation, even with outreach, has not been a particularly effective approach,” said Pat Hayes, principal engineer for the utility.

Utilities statewide are facing reduced water allocations as a result of years of drought and tough environmental court decisions that have further constrained supplies. MWD reserves have also been dwindling.

The City Council last week authorized utility officials to move forward with revisions to the city’s water conservation rules that would impose strict restrictions on customers as a way to meet water-reduction goals.

In the draft regulations, customers would be billed at least twice the regular rate for any water used exceeding their individually assigned benchmarks, which would be calculated to be 10% less than their average consumption in 2006.

That provision got a lukewarm response from the council, which directed utility officials to get more public input.

On Monday, Assistant General Manager of Water Services Peter Kavounas offered the commission a look at multiple options to induce conservation. “The question isn’t about making an arbitrary decision,” he said. “The question is which arbitrary decision do we want to make?”

Some of the options on the table include increasing the fixed meter and commodity charges, or creating a second, more expensive tier of rates for customers who don’t cut back. There could be other tiered rate structures, officials said, but the most effective one is the proposal to charge customers based on how much they use compared to a base line.

Whatever the rate structure, Glendale Water & Power commissioners said the plan would have to be equitable, and contain provisions for people who have already been cutting back.

“I think we should come up with a solution that is the fairest,” Commissioner Ed Ebrahimian said.

Glendale Water & Power plans to host three community meetings, in addition to meeting with Realtors, who have raised concerns over proposed home resale provisions, and the Glendale Chamber of Commerce. Officials also plan to meet large-scale manufacturers and businesses.

“There’s some hard policy questions to be answered,” Kavounas said, such as how the size of a lot, or number of people per home, would affect each customer’s water allocation. “This is not an easy topic; there are no guarantees. Next year it could be 20% that needs to be cut down.”