Longtime Simi resident Larry Lukunich is not a fan of the city’s new rules limiting outdoor watering to three days a week. He says if he adheres to those rules, severe damage to his lawn is inevitable.

“I know from experience that my property will burn up, it will fail on me, it will be a disaster,” said the 70-year-old retiree, who lives on a half-acre parcel on Heavenly Court. “I’m sure the grass will die a slow death.”

The fact that he has a pool to maintain just makes matters worse.

Because of the size and type of his landscape, Lukunich had been watering his lawn up to six days a week and sometimes twice a day.

But the city’s recently adopted restrictions force him to change his ways or incur a fine.

A month ago, Ventura County Waterworks District No. 8, which is headed by the Simi Valley City Council, declared a Level 1 water supply shortage. Under the declaration, homeowners like Lukunich who receive water from the city can irrigate their lawns on Monday, Wednesday and Friday only. And come Nov. 1, watering will be limited to Monday and Thursday.

In addition, Simi’s water conservation ordinance, passed in May, prohibits watering from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and limits watering to no more than 15 minutes per sprinkler station per day.

Lukunich said it’s unfair that the city’s rules treat all properties the same since smaller lots won’t feel the effect of the restrictions as intensely as he will.

“You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to realize it’s going to take more water to keep (my) property green than a postagestamp-sized parcel,” he said.

Still, individual homeowners aren’t the only ones subject to the new rules: The city, the school district, the park district, golf courses and homeowners associations have to abide by them too.

Commercial nurseries and irrigation systems using smart controllers are exempt.

Ed Hayduk, assistant general manager for the Rancho Simi Recreation and Park District, said though the rules do pose a challenge, as of now the district is in full compliance.

“There might be some stressedout parks. We’ve got a month and a half left of hot weather so we’re hoping to get through this,” he said. “We’re mostly concerned with our active ball fields.”

The central base computerized irrigation system that controls 13 of the 44 parks in Simi, including the three largest, keeps the district in compliance.

In addition, many parks are already watered just three days a week and eight parks are not irrigated at all. Sinaloa Golf Course is watered just three times a week and Simi Hills is on an independent smart controller system.

Still, watering just two days a week starting in November is what worries Hayduk. He said that will impact turf renovation and the youth baseball leagues.

But, he said, the district is taking a proactive approach, including bringing four more parks into the district’s computerized system in the next 60 days.

Wanda Moyer, an environmental compliance program analyst with the city who is managing the implementation of the water conservation program, said 80 percent of the 400 calls and emails the city has received have been inquiries—not complaints.

The school district, Moyer acknowledged, has expressed some concerns regarding Royal High School’s football field.

As for violations or fines, none had been issued as of Monday, she said.

“We’re not out there trying to ticket people,” Moyer said. “Our mission right now is to just educate people about the fact that we have a severe water shortage and we’re trying to reduce our water use because as a community we could face significant financial penalties (if we don’t).”

The city’s conservation measures were adopted in order to comply with the 15 percent reduction in regional water use mandated by the Metropolitan Water District and passed on by the city’s supplier, Calleguas Municipal Water District.

According to Eric Bergh, manager of resources for Calleguas, the agency is looking at penalties up to $3,244 per acre foot if it doesn’t meet its allocation by the end of the fiscal year. That extra cost would be applied to the purveyors that triggered the overage.

Cutting back on watering landscaping makes a significant impact since 66 percent of Simi’s water use is outdoors. The city selected specific days for watering because it makes the regulations easier to enforce, Moyer said.

Other cities such as Thousand Oaks and Camarillo have enacted similar restrictions. However, Thousand Oaks did not designate specific days.

While residents and businesses may not like the water rules, they are working. Waterworks district customers decreased their July water usage by 13 percent from last year.

Though that decrease is short of the 15 percent target, Moyer said the city is pleased that it got close in its first month.

Bergh said while Calleguas is tracking its monthly deliveries to purveyors, the most important thing is achieving the annual 15 percent reduction goal by the end of June 2010, because that’s when penalties kick in.

Districtwide, Calleguas decreased its July water usage by 15.4 percent.

Bergh said that’s good news because July is the peak demand month for the region, but he’d like to hit 20 percent to have a bit of a buffer.

For residents who are unhappy with the conservation rules and hope things will return to normal, Bergh had some sobering news.

“Even though we are in an allocation mode, it’s only 15 percent. And depending on what the next year and year after that holds in terms of snow pack, that could get more extreme,” he said. “Now is the time to be more mindful of how we use water, particularly outdoors.”

Acorn Bit

For more information about the city’s water conservation program, call the Water Conservation Hotline at (805) 5836420 or e-mail waterconservation@simivalley.org. Residents can track the city’s progress in meeting its 15 percent reduction goal on the city’s website, www.simivalley.org. A water conservation meter will be updated monthly.