El Segundo Pair Staunch Water Waste

March rains and snow may have won California a respite from its five-year drought, but they haven’t halted the water-saving efforts of El Segundo homemaker Pauline Crombie and her husband Douglass, an aerospace engineer.

Taking steps ranging from changes in the way they cook and bathe to the ultimate California sacrifice--emptying their Jacuzzi--the Crombies in the past year have held their daily water use to an average of 50 gallons each.

That compares to 140 gallons a day for the typical Southern California resident, according to the Metropolitan Water District, the region’s chief wholesale water supplier. And it’s less than half the amount needed for an exemption from El Segundo’s one-month-old water rationing program.

With California’s snowpack and reservoir levels bolstered by last month’s storms, the Crombies say they might ease up a bit and fill their Jacuzzi. But otherwise, they say, conservation will continue apace.

“If anything, we’re conserving more,” says Pauline Crombie, 68. “We’ve got into the swing of it now. It sort of becomes second nature.”

Such words are music to the ears of water officials, who fear last month’s precipitation might dampen public interest in saving water. Rather than regard conservation as a temporary inconvenience, the officials say, residents should make the practice part of their lives.

“The last five years of drought are not going to be overcome by one wet month,” says MWD official Bob Gomperz. “March may have been an aberration. We’re still very much in the depths of the drought, and it’s important we continue to conserve.”

The Crombies, natives of New Zealand, knew something about water shortages before moving to El Segundo from Boulder, Colo., in 1985. For several months in the mid-1950s, while living near Wellington Harbor, New Zealand, a weak water system idled their taps for all but a few hours during the day.

“You had to wait until 4 o’clock in the afternoon before the (water) pressure got to you,” says Douglass Crombie, 66. “We had to be pretty careful. When the water pressure came up, all the containers came out.”

In Boulder, a water shortage in the 1970s prompted them to stock their garden with drought-resistant plants--and win first prize in the “xeriscape” category of a city-run landscaping awards program in 1985.

But the Crombies’ most aggressive and sustained water savings have come in El Segundo, where they own a two-story, cedar-shingled home with a small front lawn and garden, and a patio and Jacuzzi in the rear.

The effort got off to a shaky start two years ago, after they installed water displacement bags they had requested from the MWD. The plastic bags, to be filled with water and attached inside toilet tanks, are intended to reduce the amount of water wasted in flushing.

That, at least, is how they’re supposed to work.

“First of all, the water crept out of them, and then they came loose and got tangled up in the flushing mechanism,” Douglass Crombie says. “They were a damned nuisance.”

So the Crombies took matters into their own hands, submerging bricks in their toilet tanks. Still not good enough, though: The bricks began to disintegrate. Then the couple hit on a successful solution--sand-filled plastic jars with screw-on tops.

Since then, the Crombies have taken numerous other steps to hold down water consumption. Among other things, they:

* Installed an automatic sprinkler system. They set it to water the lawn, starting at 9 a.m., for a maximum of 10 minutes every three days in the summer and five minutes every four days in the winter.

* Collect cold water they would normally waste while waiting for tap, bath or shower water to warm up, and use it to water their plants.

* Take sponge baths instead of full baths or showers five days a week.

* Use low-flow shower heads.

* Minimize toilet flushing.

* Wash dishes by hand in a partially filled sink.

* Don’t use the electric disposal.

* Pressure-cook, rather than boil, their vegetables.

* Use drought-resistant plants in their garden.

Often, one water-saving step triggers ideas for others. Not content to limit herself to a bucket-and-a-half of water while washing her car, for instance, Pauline Crombie says she has thought seriously about parking on her front lawn before washing so the grass would get the benefit of the trickle-down effect.

“Sometimes, I think I may be going too far,” she says. “But when you try, you keep thinking of ways to conserve water.”

The couple’s water savings are bolstered somewhat by geography: Because El Segundo is a coastal community, lawns and gardens benefit from the moist ocean air.

But their water use is low even taking location into account. According to the MWD, a resident of California’s coastal fringe uses an average 104 gallons a day--about twice the amount the Crombies use.

Conservation at the Crombie household also far exceeds water-saving targets set by El Segundo, which is among many cities in Los Angeles County requiring residents to cut water use or face extra charges on their water bills.

El Segundo residents face higher fees if they fail to hold water consumption 20% below the amount they used during the 12-month period of June 1, 1989 through May 31, 1990.

The cutbacks do not apply to households with water use at or below 125 gallons per person per day--more than double the amount the Crombies use. But the couple say they were not aware of this fact when city officials first announced the mandatory water cutbacks were being imposed.

Well into her own conservation program, Pauline Crombie was shocked by the news. She fired a letter off to the city detailing the conservation steps she and her husband had taken to date.

“I panicked,” Pauline Crombie says. “We’d been so good for more than 18 months, and I couldn’t see how we could save any more.”

After learning they were consuming far less than required for an exemption, however, the Crombies continued conserving.

They are not doing so blithely.

Pauline Crombie says she’s angered when she spots someone washing a car with a free-flowing hose. And Douglass Crombie is riled by reports of waste among farmers, who account for 85% of California’s water use and get their water at a fraction of the price that households are charged.

“Why should we have to conserve so much when the farmers waste so much and get it for so much less cost?” he asks.

But the Crombies say their concern about a prolonged drought override such questions. After paring back their water use to the bare essentials, they say, they’ve settled into a pattern they can live with.

“I think it makes sense to keep on it,” Douglass Crombie says. “What if we don’t get enough rain and snow next winter? There’s going to be chaos.”