Conservation

Ricoh Electronics has received the city's first business environmental award for the company's emphasis on recycling and on conserving water and electricity. Mayor Thomas R. Saltarelli presented the award at a City Council meeting last month. The awards program is designed to increase corporate interest in waste management and other conservation efforts, said Katie Pitcher, an administrative assistant with the city Public Works Department.

Below are water consumption figures for 11 cities in the Metropolitan Water District service area for the first 17 days of August. Measured in acre-feet of water* City 1989 1990 % change Anaheim 7,840 8,182 +4.4 Burbank 2,399 2,155 -10.2 Fullerton 3,895 3,475 -10.8 Glendale 3,346 3,039 -9.2 Long Beach 7,840 7,244 -7.6 Los Angeles 69,450 65,342 -5.9 Pasadena 4,408 3,910 -11.3 Riverside 7,798 8,017 +2.8 San Diego 25,927 24,066 -7.2 Santa Ana 5,239 5,000 -4.6 Santa Monica 1,668 1,479 -11.

Nine o'clock on Saturday morning, and Dave Foreman has just finished a back-yard breakfast with a group of Laguna Beach environmentalists. Within an hour, they'll head up toward an area of Laguna Canyon known as Sycamore Hills and protest the planned six-lane San Joaquin Hills tollway that would crisscross the canyon. It's the same place local residents converged by the thousands in 1989 and, as local history would have it, persuaded the Irvine Co.

The City Council has rescinded a water conservation ordinance enacted last year. Because of this winter's rainfall and conservation efforts by residents, the council repealed a mandatory 10% reduction in water use as well as restrictions on water fountains, hosing down of driveways and sidewalks and daytime lawn watering. Though water customers succeeded in reducing the city's water consumption in 1991 by 16.1% compared to 1989, officials have asked residents to continue voluntary conservation.

It is difficult to fathom that there could be a plot of ground in California that hasn't been extensively tramped across, camped on, photographed or blogged about. If anything comes close, it's the proposed Berryessa Snow Mountain National Conservation Area, a half-million-acre section of the inner coast range that is home to some of the most biologically diverse landscape in the state, ranging from unspoiled rivers and rolling oak woodlands that begin near the town of Winters to the craggy 7,000-foot peak of Snow Mountain in the Mendocino National Forest, 100 miles to the north.

Tustin officials reported this week that the water conservation program has significantly decreased usage. "It appears that our water users have made a conscious effort to conserve water and should be encouraged to continue to do so throughout the summer months," Administrative Assistant Irma Hernandez said in a report.

Responding to strong conservation by residents and businesses, the Lakewood City Council has repealed the city's mandatory water conservation program. The decision Tuesday night took effect immediately. The 58,000 residents and 1,000 business and industrial customers served by the municipal water system have cut water use by 28% since the city's mandatory program took effect last March, said Jim Glancy, Lakewood's water superintendent.

City Councilwoman Joan Milke Flores on Wednesday proposed a 10-point plan for long-term water conservation in Los Angeles, even as she labled Mayor Tom Bradley's proposal for mandatory water rationing this year as "premature." The councilwoman--who chairs the council's Commerce, Energy and Natural Resources Committee--said most of the attention given to water recently has involved stop-gap measures such as Bradley's water rationing proposal.

The House Resources Committee overcame a split among Western Republicans on Wednesday and approved a $47-billion land conservation proposal. It uses money from federal offshore oil and gas leases to restore coastlines, protect wildlife and create urban parks. The committee debated for four hours before voting 29-12 to send the Conservation and Reinvestment Act to the full House. Committee Chairman James V.

The drought is still forcing city water customers to cut water use, but the city granted residents a break this week by easing conservation goals and penalties for noncompliance. Residents now must reduce water use by 15% instead of 25%. And the surcharge for overuse has been cut in half, saving the average residential user about $2 a month. The changes came after some Anaheim residents and business owners complained that the original plan was unfair.