COURT COULD DEVASTATE WATER SUPPLY HALF OF SOUTHLAND'S IMPORTED RESOURCES FROM NORTH AT RISK.

Byline: ALEX DOBUZINSKIS

Staff Writer

Southern California officials are bracing for a federal judge's ruling that could cut back the local water supply from Northern California by up to 50 percent.

U.S. District Judge Oliver Wanger could rule as early as today after hearing evidence this week in a case brought by the Natural Resources Defense Council that, to protect the endangered smelt fish, could force the state to temporarily shut down pumps in the San Joaquin-Sacramento River Delta.

Local water officials have not ruled out the possibility of rationing if the judge orders drastic cutbacks.

"Conservation, rationing -- those are the types of things that are always on the table to look at," said Jeff Kightlinger, general manager of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, which supplies water to Los Angeles and other cities and water districts serving about 18 million residents.

Speaking at a recent water summit meeting, U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein said Wanger could order cutbacks of 20-50 percent.

"This is massive," Feinstein said. "It is major for some water districts in the state."

If Wanger sides with the Natural Resources Defense Council, it could affect water supply throughout Southern California from the end of this year and into next, officials said.

When the pumps are running, some parts of the delta flow backward, which draws smelt fish into the pumps and kills them.

The state already shut down the pumps for nine days starting May 31 to protect endangered smelt that were migrating past them. When that happened, the state drew on the San Luis Reservoir in the San Joaquin Valley, leaving the reservoir only a quarter full, with what one state official described as a "bathtub ring" along its sides.

"If the pumps are shut down to protect the fish, it really doesn't matter if it's wet or dry, I can't move (the water)," Kightlinger said. "And so that's why we need to get into the smart infrastructure that keeps the fish and the pumps away from each other."

Among the options is a "peripheral canal" that would go around the delta, a proposal voters rejected in 1982. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has revived discussion of it.

The governor also appointed a blue-ribbon panel that is expected to produce recommendations in October on how to manage the delta.

Two-thirds of the Southland's imported water comes from the delta via the north-south California Aqueduct, up from more than one-third several years ago, Kightlinger said.

The rest comes from the Colorado River, which used to provide 60 percent of the district's imported water but is now going through an unprecedented dry spell.

If the water district imposes rationing, it would be up to the cities it serves to decide how much to force residents to cut back. Meanwhile, cities are already asking residents to use less water.

In June, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa issued the city's first water conservation goal in more than a decade, urging residents to cut their use by 10 percent. That came as L.A. finished its driest rain season ever, with just 3.21 inches.

That's why the focus has to be cutting back on consumption, said David Nahai, president of the Department of Water and Power board. The city has called on residents to do everything from taking shorter showers to not using their toilets as a "wastebasket."

"I think we're looking at a worrisome picture here," Nahai said. "However, it's not panic time, because we have more than adequate storage and because we had a very wet year" in 2006.

But, "at the end of the day, we are still a city of 4 million people sitting atop a desert area," he said. "We're going to need water imported to the area, especially as we grow."

alex.dobuzinskis(at)dailynews.com

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