Conservation Proves Refreshing : * Orange County’s many drought measures are encouraging, so far

Orange County is blessed with a generous underground supply of water, which provides about half the county’s need. But the other half comes from the Metropolitan Water District, which has recently jumped to a new level of overall reductions in water supplies to 27 agencies serving six counties.

With plans to cut water orders drastically, Orange County, while not in the serious shape of some surrounding areas in Southern California, must still move toward ever more prudent and even mandatory conservation measures.

The time to save is now, not later. Fortunately, there’s been a lot of encouraging activity on the conservation front in recent weeks. Keep up the good efforts.

The Board of Supervisors was wise last week to order a 20% reduction in county government water use. Also, two agencies serving Laguna Beach decided to impose stiff penalties for failure to conserve, the latest in a series of restrictions enacted around the county. And then there was San Clemente, out front last year with tough water restrictions, amending the water conservation law to reduce household water consumption by about 30%.

To date, Newport Beach, the Serrano Irrigation District and the Irvine Ranch, Santiago County, South Coast, Trabuco Canyon and El Toro water districts have imposed price increases on customers who fail to conserve.

Recently, La Habra and Santa Ana imposed restrictions, even before the shift from 17% to 31% in mandatory conservation requirements by MWD. Moreover, Anaheim is not waiting to act and is expected to adopt similar rules this week. Other cities and water districts throughout Orange County are ready with similar plans.

La Habra, which does not benefit from access to the county’s vast underground reservoir that serves much of the northern part of the county, is aiming to cut water consumption by 10% to 20%, by use of an odd-day-even-day outdoor watering schedule during restricted hours.

Santa Ana has restricted watering of lawns, and requires people to use buckets or control nozzles when washing cars. It has also prohibited restaurants from providing water on tables unless requested.

Elsewhere, new rate systems have been imposed to encourage conservation by charging heavy fines when customers use more than the alloted water. And agriculture in general earlier did a commendable job of responding to shortages, by instituting drip irrigation, recycling of water and computer-operated irrigation. Growers realized some years ago that higher prices are a good incentive for conservation.

It’s encouraging to see so many in Orange County taking steps to deal with a serious problem.