The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • Page 191

ZILOS ANGELES TIMES THURSDAY, MARCH 7, 1991 A15 One Town's Water Rations: 10 Gallons Per Person Per Day By MILES CORWIN TIMES STAFF WRITER RANGE COVE, -Flush your toilet twice and you've used up your daily water allotment. Take a shower and you've used it Cup for two days. Do few loads of laundry and there goes your water for a week. In the small San Joaquin Valley. town of Orange Cove, water cutbacks have been so severe that residents have been advised to use no more than 10 gallons a day.

The a average Los Angeles resident uses firmore than 10 times that amount. Ten gallons a day is such a 3 minuscule amount, says many Orwange Cove residents, that no mat-iter how 1 much they conserve they will never be able to cut back that 49much. "I drink that much coffee a day," Ribald Leroy Anderson outside the nitown's only bank. "Ten gallons last long in my house." WE Even city officials are skeptical it can be done in a town with no operating water meters, and no steal way of enforcing reductions its largely low -income many of whom are farm workers. 1s "I realize it's pretty well impos-.

said City Administrator 1. -Alan Bengyel, shrugging. "But, lit: AF "I realize it's pretty well 42 impossible. But, theoretically, that's all bathe water we can Cr: ALAN BENGYEL 99 Orange Cove city administrator can spare." 10 Bengyel called for such drastic measures because he learned last month that Orange Cove, which theoretically, that's all the water relies entirely on federal water will receive only of its normal supplies this year. He -quickly calculated that if every Cove resident cut back they would be down to 10.2 gallons a day, A.90% cutback in a city's sole water supply is unprecedented in state water officials say.

-The Metropolitan Water District that serves Southern California, for this week ordered cutbacks in water deliveries to agencies in April -an amount de-scribed by officials as "beyond anyone would have dreamed pof." After Bengyel learned of Orange Cove's cutbacks he sent out notices informing residents of their daily allotment and offering Oconservation tips. But in the of active meters, residents ware on the honor system, and, so far, honor is losing out. JD Since the water reduction in mid-February, resridents are still using more than an Taverage of 80 gallons a day per -a cutback of only At this rate, the community will run of water by summer, Bengyel said. As a result, he is frantically searching for emergency supplies to get them through the rest of the year. While many residents say they are trying to conserve, the town's water supply is not their primary concern.

More than a third of the town's 6,000 residents are unemployed as a result of the freeze last December that destroyed the area's citrus crop. And the recent water cutbacks to local farmersalso mote unemployment because most have had to scale back their operations. Thousands of unemployed fruit pickers and packinghouse workers are months behind on their rent, utility and water bills. Many don't have enough money to buy grocerles. "We could put in water meters and raise water rates, but what good would it do?" asked Mayor Victor Lopez.

"There are so many people already who can't pay their water bills, we can't ask them to pay more. And because so many people are unemployed and staying home it's harder for them to conserve." Orange Cove's water cutbacks have been so severe because it receives all of its supplies from the Friant-Kern Canal, a Central Valley Project source designed primarily for agriculture. This source can provide only of normal supplies the southern Sierch feed the Friant Damhave received a much smaller percentage of normal rainfall than the mountains farther north. The only other city that receives water from this source is Lindsay, but it has several productive wells in town that will make up for much of the cutbacks. Orange Cove, however, has minimal ground-water supplies and only about 10 of Orange Cove's residents have wells on their properties, says City Clerk Betty Hutton.

So the city is considering buying water from other irrigation districts, trading reclaimed water from its sewage treatment plant for potable water and digging extremely deep. wells in a search for ground water. City officials in Orange Cove, a largely Latino farming town about 35 miles southeast of Fresno, are typical of many California politicians -they assumed there always would be enough water. Five years ago the city even decided to shut off all of its residential water 'meters. "Water was something you nev- a er worried I about around here," said Sue Jones; former president of the Chamber of Commerce.

"People just sort of took for granted that they'd have all the water they wanted." Orange Cove has a limited budget, Bengyel said. Cutting off the water meters was one way to save money, he said, by eliminating the need for meter readers. In the past, he said, there was no incentive to conserve because the city's water was supplied on a "use it or lose it" basis. Orange Cove received a des- a ignated amount of water each year, and, whether residents used all or a Please see RATION, A20 NEW EL TORO H.S. 25255.

TOLEDO WAY FAKE LAKE, CA. MRS. WEBBER al DAVID MURONAKA Los Angeles Titles Sherry Webber, an administrative worker at El Toro High and a 26-year resident of El Toro, ridicules the very idea of a new name. EL TORO: Will It Change to Lake Continued from A1 replied that they could use Lake Forest or El Toro but must include the ZIP code. Many of the businesses and civic groups that use El Toro in their names defiantly said they will refuse to change to Lake Forest.

El Honda Service, El Toro Poodle Boutique and El Toro Mini Market all said they will keep El Toro in their signs and stationery, Asked whether he will convert El Toro Baptist Church to Lake Forest Baptist Church, the Rev. Ira F. Day replied, "Absolutely not." Of the 38 business who use El Toro, just one announced that it would change to Lake Forest. Keith Lewis, a director of El Toro Models Guild, said the change in stationery and signs would cost his company thousands of dollars, but he figures that he has little choice. "We were hoping that they stick with El Toro," he said.

"But we're in the image business, and we have to keep up with the times." any heard about business the people final vote said on they the had prospec- not tive city's name until midday Wednesday. "Oh, my goodness. I don't believe they did it," said Sue Wyoon, owner of El Toro Florists on El Toro Road. "That's bad news. That's Wyoon said the change would mean a loss in as -of -state florists usually look for "the city florist." She said she would like to change the name of her store but cannot because there already is a Lake Forest Florist.

Longtime El Toro residents said they are devastated by the name change. "It's like losing a right arm," said Ray Prothero, a former president of the Saddleback Area Historical Society, "It's either you take it like a man or cry like a baby." Prothero's family moved to the area before 1900 and became prominent citrus farmers. A reservoir in Mission Viejo bears his family name, and the Protheros also donated the land on which the El Toro Library was built; Prothero said he remembers leading a campaign in the late 1960g against changing the name of the El Toro Post Office to Laguna North. "They shouldn't change the name of the library and the other institutions," he said with a breaking voice. "It will be like erasing history." In the end, residents considered the name question to be a struggle between the past and Mayor Remains Firm in Her Gentle Reliance on Voluntary Water Cutbacks AMY WALLACE LEONARD BERNSTEIN TIMES STAFF WRITERS CAN DIEGO -As the first heavy rain in months began to fall last Mayor Maureen O'Connor suggested that San Dieigans turn off their automatic sprinkler systems, "The mayor said the projected rainfall will throughly saturate the ground and preclude the need for watering," noted a press release urged what many Southland cities have already required.

Welcome to California's most Serious drought ever, San Diegostyle. While cities and water districts throughout the state have tough, mandatory restrictions, O'Connor -mayor of the state's second-largest -has been a stubborn holdout for voluntary cutbacks, steadfast in her belief that conservation can be coaxed. San Diego County relies upon the Metropolitan Water District for of its water, and the MWD announced overall cutbacks of but O'Connor is firm. "I'm proud to be San Diego's mayor because our style is different," she said recently, explaining why the city is alone among San Diego County's 23 water districts to 'adopt voluntary Instead of mandajory conservation. Let other cities impose "meanspirited" mandatory measures, she said, voluntary cutbacks will work for San Diego if politicians merely ask.

"Every time we have asked San (EL TORO CHARGERS REDE CROSS BLOOD 3-6 DONATED BY CLASS JF 1985 El Toro High Principal Don Martin worries "alumni will go bananas" with name change. the -between the residents of the planned communities of Lake Forest and the people who live in older El Toro neighborhoods. Longtime residents said they revere the history of El Toro and even the controversy surrounding its name. One version holds that the community was named when a padre's prayer for divine intervention stopped a charging bull. Another version contends that it was named after bellowing bulls kept by Don Jose Serrano, who was granted the land in El Toro by the Mexican government.

Residents of the Lake Forest planned communities say their name sounds more chic. Their district was named after several groves of eucalyptus trees and two man-made lakes created by the master developer, Occidental Petroleum, in the late 1960s, The name change is a flash point between residents of Lake Forest and El Toro. Sherry Webber, an administrative employee and 26- year El Toro resident, posted a sign on her desk near Martin's office to voice her feelings. It read: "'New El Toro H.S. 25255 Toledo Way, Fake Lake, CA." Lake Forest residents voted in surprisingly large numbers support cityhood and their name, said Bill Kraus, general manager of the Lake Forest II Master Homeowners Assn.

"For some of the Lake Forest people, the name El Toro was something less than up, and coming," said Steven Stack, a Lake Forest-11 resident who voted for that name. He also alluded to El Toro Marine Corps Air Station: "A lot of residents here did not like to.be immediately associated with the Marine base and prefer to identify with the nice facilities But Godinez, the postal official, said the battle has only just begun. He pointed out that. few years ago the Santa Margarita Co. failed in its bid to call its multimillion-dollar subdivision Santa Margarita because a San Luis County community already had the name, The company settled for Rancho Santa Margarita: According to Godinez, each day about 25 letters without ZIP codes are sent back and forth between the Lake Forest near Lake Tahoe and the one here.

"As the area grows, we are talking about hundreds of pieces of mail daily," he said. "That will be a disaster." Davis, chairman of the Community Coalltion for Incorporation in El Toro, said the believes that Tuesday's vote to change the name will be binding on the new City Council. it "We are all surprised that El Toro didn't win, but the people of El Toro have spoken," he said. "The City Council will have to live with it, and everyone will have to live with it." Davis, a Lake Forest II resident who voted for El Toro, said the council should take ensure that El Toro's history is not aside with the name change. -U "They should create an old El Toro area in the new city to mitigate the loss," he said.

Davis said cityhood proponents had considered the possible conflict involving the name but had determined that the other Lake Forest is only a subdivision of Tahoe City. He said El Toro's name change will become official Dec. 20, when incorporation becomes final. Prothero, the historian, said he hopes tHat history repeats itself and that the name remains El Toro. In 1889, a New England developer bought most of the land in the El Toro area and, called it Aliso City.

But he was denied a post office permit because of the name's similarity' to Alviso, a small town near San Jose. The name then reverted to El Toro. IL said "I really Prothero, don't know what's going to happen," will always remain El Toro for me." 67. "But as long as I'm around, it "That's an awful lot of savings to reach on voluntary," said John Lockwood, the former city manager, just before he retired this week. On Tuesday, San Diego County supervisors approved a mechanism that could force the city's first 'mandatory restrictions.

Stressing that they are not eager to usurp city rights, the supervisors declared a local state of emergency to create a countywide blueprint for response to the drought. O'Connor's handling of the drought is the latest example of a brand of political leadership typified by -heart appeals to fellow San Diegans, whom she considers somehow more civic minded than other Californians. With little apparent interest in the nuts and bolts of governing, the mayor relies on her ability to mobilize the city's circle of wealthy and powerful, her schoolgirl charm and her instinctive knowledge of how San Diegans will respond. She loathes imposing restrictions on her public, especially ones that might crimp the famous laidSan Diego lifestyle. Critics say O'Connor is contributing to a perception that this -growing city is responding too slowly to the drought.

Councilman Bob Filner said his willingness to follow O'Connor's lead has been irresponsible and constitutes "mixed signals." In sparring with Finer recently, the mayor told him: "I know you get tired of my cutesy 'I am from San Diego' approach. But I would rather have too much faith in this community than too little." MANY ITEMS BELOW COST! TE 28 HOUR THE BIGGEST BLOWOUT! 3 DAYS ONLY! SALE OF THE 4259 699 SAT. SUN. 9 AM-7PM DOORS OPEN SAT Starting MON. 10AM-6PM MAR ST DAM SHARP NOW AS LOW 28 HOURS ONLY AST COMES ST SERVED AS ALL CASABLANCA FANS SHOP QUANTITIES LIMITED! OVER Factory Invoice ORIG.

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"Yes, we are in a crisis situation. But pitting neighborhood against neighborhood is not the way to solve it." In conservation fact, O'Connor's voluntary program achieved its goal of a reduction in water use last summer. From September through December, the city never topped savings. In January, San Diego residents averaged 10.3%. But now some city staff members acknowledged that voluntary measures will not be enough.

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