Cities Use Rate Hikes, Rationing to Fight Drought : Water: Officials say the shortage has reached a crisis. Even tougher restrictions are expected by summer.

With the region’s supply of water shrinking daily, drought-struck San Gabriel Valley cities are, one by one, electing either to impose mandatory water rationing measures or to raise consumers’ water bills.

In most cases, city and water officials are attacking the problem by putting an extravagant price on waste or heavy consumption of water.

“We’re really into a crisis or emergency situation,” said George F. Morrow, manager of utility resource planning for Pasadena, which is expected to impose manadatory rationing by June or July. “We take it very seriously.”

In Azusa, water customers will soon by paying 7% higher water bills, as the City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved a rate increase effective April 1. The measure will generate $200,000 annually for the city, said Joseph Hsu, Azusa’s director of utilities.

Because the drought has lessened the amount the city can pump from its own wells, Azusa needs the money to purchase additional water from outside sources, Hsu said.

The average residential water bill, now $14.61 a month, will go to $15.67 starting April 1.

About $50,000 of the proceeds from the first year’s increase is expected to be used for a water conservation program, Hsu said. The first priority will be to hire a water conservation officer to oversee the program, which will include distribution of home conservation kits and educational brochures on water use. But there are no plans yet to impose mandatory water rationing, Hsu said.

The Pomona City Council voted Tuesday to more than double the charge for water at construction projects and to raise fees to discourage builders from making unnecessary tests of water flow at fire hydrants.

Anthony J. Skvarek, water department manager, said the new rates will pass along to builders the extra cost to the city of buying excess water from the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. The new rates are tied to surcharges levied by MWD and other water suppliers.

The council voted to impose a $100 fee for builders conducting flow tests of hydrants. Such tests are usually unnecessary, Skvarek said, because the water flow information that builders use in devising sprinkler systems is on file at City Hall.

In Arcadia, which has already imposed fees as high as four times the normal rate for those who use more than their approved allotments, the City Council voted Tuesday to cut back on irrigation at city-operated facilities.

But the council stopped far short of the stringent and expensive conservation measures recommended by the Public Works Department, which had called for a more than 20% reduction in irrigation.

The council approved a regular inspection of sprinklers and allotted $3,000 to replace an old mechanical dial-type irrigation clock with a digital controller. But it agreed only to an irrigation reduction of about 2%.

Council members also rejected a proposal to replace plants in parking islands with concrete or to limit tennis court washings, saying they did not “want to change the appearance of the city.” Installation of a $75,000 electronic device that measures the level of moisture in soil for a 10% saving in water was also rejected.

Like other city councils in the region, the Monrovia City Council this week directed its staff to prepare a water conservation plan that will include mandatory cuts in water use by early this summer. Robert Sandwick, public works director, said that although Monrovia residents voluntarily cut water use by 11% last summer, he expects that the city will have to implement even more stringent conservation measures this year.

If the new plan goes into effect, it will include a 10% mandatory reduction for all residents and penalties for violators, Sandwick said. If the drought continues, mandatory cuts of up to 25% in water use may be imposed, he said. The council is expected to vote on the plan in early March and to put it into effect by June.

The Pasadena Board of Directors is expected to consider next week a mandatory 15% rationing program to go into effect by summer.

The Diamond Bar Home Improvement Assn. is issuing water conservation kits as part of the city’s campaign to reduce water consumption by 10%. The packets can be obtained at the Diamond Bar Chamber of Commerce at 1081 S. Grand Ave.

Times staff writers Berkley Hudson, Franki V. Ransom, John Sullaway and Mike Ward and free-lance writers Elena Farrington and Karen E. Klein contributed to this story.