Mandatory Water Reduction Plan to Start : Drought: Customers in Redondo Beach, Hermosa Beach and the P.V. Peninsula must reduce usage by 10% or face penalties.

Mandatory water savings of 10% take effect this month for residents and businesses in Redondo Beach, Hermosa Beach and the Palos Verdes Peninsula--all South Bay customers of the California Water Service Co.

The private water company won approval Wednesday for a water conservation program from the California Public Utilities Commission. Under the plan, consumers who fail to meet their monthly conservation target will have to pay triple the normal rate for additional water used.

The plan also allows California Water Service to place flow restrictors on the water lines of customers who ignore these prohibitions and--in extreme cases--to cut off water service altogether. Also banned are a variety of wasteful uses of water.

Citing the state’s deepening drought, elected officials in cities covered by California Water Service said they will urge their communities to cooperate.

“I flew back from Finland a couple of weeks ago and we came right down the Sierras,” Rancho Palos Verdes City Councilman Melvin W. Hughes said Thursday. “It’s amazing how little snow there is and how low the reservoirs are. We’re in serious trouble, and I’m glad to see water rationing steps being taken.”

“This is something we should have done a year ago,” Redondo Beach Mayor Brad Parton said.

The California Water Service program is the second mandatory water plan approved in the South Bay so far to combat the current drought. Last month, the city of Manhattan Beach passed restrictions that also require residents and businesses to trim consumption by 10%.

Though Manhattan Beach officials hope to implement the plan in April, a starting date has not been set. By contrast, customers of California Water Service will receive conservation targets this month and--if they exceed them--penalties in their next monthly bills.

California Water Service’s normal charge for water is 98 cents per 100 cubic feet (748 gallons), according to Terry Tamble, a company official. Under the new water curbs, customers will be charged an additional $2 per 100 cubic feet for the water they use in excess of their water conservation goal.

The mandatory reductions will not apply to customers whose monthly water consumption is 600 cubic feet or less, which is about 150 gallons a day. Although customers will not receive rebates for conserving more water than required, they will get credits to offset future penalties.

Monthly conservation goals will be calculated using June, 1989, through May, 1990, as the base year. In March, for instance, customers will have to use 10% less water than they did in March of last year. But in July, they will be required to use 10% less than they did in July, 1989.

Tamble said the system is arranged this way to avoid penalizing those who took part in a voluntary water conservation program last summer. He said his company will also credit customers for earlier conservation efforts if these can be verified.

“We can look it up on our computer and determine their consumption history,” he said.

Besides requiring the 10% cut in water use, California Water Service is prohibiting wasteful uses that include running fountains without recycling systems, serving water in restaurants when it is not requested, sending water into streets or gutters, washing vehicles or boats with a hose that lacks an automatic shut-off nozzle, as well as hosing down sidewalks, driveways, patios and other hard surfaces.

First-time violators will receive a written warning, Tamble said. For subsequent violations, he said, the company could install flow-restrictors or shut off the customer’s water--though that, he said, “would only be in an extreme case.”

Tamble said the water company can only take action against offenders if one of its employees sees water conservation rules being violated. He said his company did not plan to patrol, but would field telephone tips of potential violations and send employees to check.

“We feel we can handle it with the people we’ve got,” Tamble said. “If we get more calls than we can handle, though, then we’ll hire temporary help.”