Fire risk makes water precious in Yorba Linda as conservation regulations take effect

The Freeway Complex Fire left a lasting impression on Prem Bovie-Ware and her husband, Frank Ware – one that’s now shaping their view of the drought.

The Wares’ high corner lot in Yorba Linda’s Hidden Hills neighborhood features vistas, especially from the rock-terraced hillside, where succulents and native plants rise over the rest of the yard. Below, they’ve got some grass, and some rose bushes – and on a clear day, they can see Catalina. But away on vacation in 2008 when the fire overtook the neighborhood, all they could see on the news were neighbors’ houses burning. The fire took 314 homes in all.

“We were just lucky,” Prem says now. But she knows the risk of other large fires is growing.

“I grew up in Southern California and the fires used to come usually in September or October,” Bovie-Ware says. “Now the Santa Anas can be any time and we have to worry about that all the time.”

Since then, Prem and her husband Frank Ware have installed fine mesh over vents under their eaves to protect against possible stray embers. She wants to be ready for the next fire. For that reason, and a few others, she's not sure the state should be asking for such deep cuts in her city's water use. 

The Yorba Linda Water District has amplified those concerns to the state, arguing that deep conservation cuts could be dangerous to homes, especially around the Chino Hills State Park.

“Our concern is that the current plan doesn’t have any allowance for the water we have to use to take care of our wildfire situation,” says general manager Mark Marcantonio. “That’s a tough sell. I can’t make that sale to people. I think that’s unreasonable to expect people to be comforted, living in their homes and being told that the only use for potable water that’s valid is an indoor use.”

Some local water suppliers in Southern California are chafing under the state’s new conservation mandates – especially those directed to cut 36 percent of their consumption. But even in this tier of users, Yorba Linda stands apart in the passion behind its objection, and the reason for it.

When it was founded 106 years ago, the Yorba Linda Water District served groundwater to orchards and other agriculture; over time, the city of Yorba Linda became a wealthy bedroom community. These days, its customers use around double the state’s average water. 

Marcantonio and some residents argue that Orange County’s fire regulations require the “irrigation” of what are called “fuel modification zones” — areas that border a quarter of the district’s territory in Yorba Linda.

Cal Fire director Ken Pimlott emphatically denies that public safety and conservation conflict. “You can do both,” he says.

Pimlott says the goal of the guidelines is to make defensible space – meaning, to clear land of dead, dry vegetation, and to trim living plants and trees to minimize fire.

Plenty of housing developments in Yorba Linda use green plants and full lawns in those areas now. But Pimlott says those thirsty landscapes aren’t required.

“Basically, you can pick fire-wise landscaping that is really drought tolerant,” he says.

Other local agencies, including several from northern California, have also raised concerns about fire risk. But regulators are pretty skeptical about those objections.

“It’s not just, we can’t do it, so count us out,” says Caren Trgovcich, deputy director of the State Water Resources Control Board. She points out regulators consulted with fire officials before implementing the conservation cuts and that the water board offers an out to communities who show they can’t balance public safety and conservation.

According to regulators, Yorba Linda has not yet applied for that alternative program. “And I would like to hear from Yorba Linda about all of the measures they have taken,” she says. “Whether they have taken every possible step to reduce their water usage.”

Yorba Linda has asked customers to cut outdoor water use in half. Some 200 customers have applied for turf removal rebates out of a customer base of almost 25,000.

But the city raises another concern about the conservation cuts: money.

Reducing the district’s water sales by 36 percent will cut revenue by around $9 million, says Marcantonio. “We don’t have a profit margin to absorb this in. Our ratepayers pay the cost of service.”

Yorba Linda’s water rates are uniform, meaning that every unit of water sold costs the same as the last. If they stay that way, Marcantonio says, monthly bills may soon have to go up even faster than planned. “I’m not sure that’s fair,” he says.

Neither is Prem Ware, who says at her house, they’re saving a lot of water already.

“We’ve been filling buckets in our shower [with] water for three or four years. We’ve been composting for 20 years. If you’ve been doing your best part for three years, 10 years, whatever, where am I gonna cut it?”

But even though the Wares are skeptical of the requirements for Yorba Linda, they say they may take out some of their lawn.

“I’m sure there are some more things we can do, and we’re going to try to find those,” says Frank Ware. “The law is the law. I understand that.”

Still, Frank says he hopes that the state reconsiders Yorba Linda’s conservation requirement before another fire hits Hidden Hills.