The Drought of 1990 : ORANGE COUNTY PERSPECTIVE : A Time for Conservation

The control of water in Orange County lies with municipal and regional authorities that are separate from county government. But the County Board of Supervisors was exercising its powers of persuasion correctly this week when it directed the county Environmental Management Agency to prepare a resolution calling for 10% voluntary reductions in water use by county residents.

Orange County has the benefit of a large underground lake containing millions of gallons of water accumulated through centuries of runoff from the Santa Ana River. However, the county is wise to resist the temptation to regard this resource as a fail-proof insurance policy against the drought. Water district officials say that although the underground supply is large, only about 1 million acre-feet of it are usable at any given time. The rest is either too deep to reach by drilling or its quality doesn’t meet standards for drinking water. And South County has no access to the lake at all and must rely on imported water.

Most cities and water districts in the county are drafting ordinances asking for voluntary cutbacks of at least 10% this summer.

The hope is that residents will respond and cut back on the nearly 900 gallons of water used every day by the average Orange County household.

If the plan doesn’t work, mandatory measures could be put in place next year.

For some areas of the county, however, it may already be too late to avoid serious shortages.

La Habra, which operates its own water company, is closely watching the wells that supply half of the city’s water supply. They are drying up because of the drought, so cutbacks could become a reality by this summer.

San Clemente has already enacted a water-rationing law because it lacks adequate piping. Other cities have dormant rationing laws on the books that can be quickly revived if the water supply drops too low.

There are also some interesting projects going on in Orange County to reclaim water; for example, the Irvine Ranch Water District has fine-tuned reclamation capabilities to a point where recycled water is being used for nondrinking purposes in the new high-rise office buildings being built in the Irvine area.

But Orange County should rest neither on its laurels nor on its underground water supply. The supervisors are the county political leaders best in a position to take the long view. They urged conservation measures in August, 1988, and as they correctly perceive, the time has come to do it again.