THE DROUGHT : Cutbacks Reach Eastern County : Thousand Oaks City Council approves a rationing plan. A 10% reduction may follow.

In a move prompted by cutbacks in state supplies, Thousand Oaks officials have activated a water conservation program that will impose large fines for wasting water.

The City Council, in a 4-1 decision Tuesday night, agreed to begin the first stage of a mandatory water rationing plan. Beginning Feb. 1, people who ignore city guidelines for cutting water use face the risk of being fined.

The law affects about 39,000 households that receive water through the city or one of two water retailers, the California-American Water Co. in Newbury Park and the California Water Service Co. in Westlake Village. The Metropolitan Water District supplies all of the water to the three delivery agencies.

In reaction to the state cuts, MWD’s board of directors last week ordered mandatory cutbacks that require a 10% reduction in water use for residential and industrial customers, and a 30% cutback for agricultural users beginning Feb. 1.

Under the plan, the price of water delivered to a city or agency will triple if the limits are exceeded.

Some of the measures aimed at trimming water use involve restrictions on car washing and a ban on water runoff and hosing driveways. Lawns may only be watered every other day.

Stricter controls could take effect as early as March, when Thousand Oaks goes to Phase II of the water-saving plan. That will allow water officials to place fines on water bills as a way of forcing customers to achieve a 10% reduction. City officials will base the reduction on water usage for the previous year.

Despite agreement among the City Council that the water crisis is serious, one council member opposed stiffer controls, saying some Thousand Oaks residents are already conserving as much as they can.

“I’ve talked to residents who have cut back to bare bones use . . . and now they will be penalized,” Councilwoman Elois Zeanah said.

Although he voted for mandatory cutbacks, Councilman Alex Fiore said he has received calls from citizens who have voluntarily conserved water during the past year and now face hardships trimming their use further.

“You tend to penalize the ones that were conserving and reward ones that weren’t,” he said.

Fiore said he has cut back usage in his own home by about 25% over the past year.

Although the city has had a voluntary conservation program since May, city residents overall reduced water use by 2.4% last year compared with 1989, officials said. In the month of December, water use dropped 14% compared with the previous December.

Before deciding whether to go to a higher stage of the conservation plan, the council will examine water usage for January and February.

However, one city official said the outlook for less stringent restrictions is gloomy.

“In just looking at the weather and what’s happened so far, I can’t see that we won’t go to Phase 2 sometime in early spring,” said Paul Swenson, city water conservation coordinator.

On Feb. 1, residents can expect to see immediate changes in the way people who waste water are handled.

City Utilities Director Don Nelson said water customers will be sent a letter detailing new restrictions on water usage and the potential for further restrictions in the months to come.

Officials also hope to place a water patrol on the streets whose sole charge will be to catch water wasters and to issue tickets, Swenson said. An officer has not yet been hired, he said.

Those tickets will be considered notice of a criminal violation subject to fines.

A system of fines is under review by the city attorney’s office, Swenson said. Under the proposed set of penalties, violators would be warned the first time they are caught wasting water.

Continued wasting of water could trigger fines of $25 for a second violation, $50 for a third violation and $100 for the fourth violation, he said.

Moorpark and Simi Valley also receive their water from MWD. Simi Valley officials are not expected to review a water-saving plan until mid-February, Deputy Public Works Director Michael Kleinbrodt said. That plan will involve prohibiting certain types of uses.

Moorpark has already achieved at least a 10% reduction in water use through a combination of mandatory and voluntary programs, county water officials said.