By Lauren McSherry

The Purissima Hills Water District Sept. 16 asked the Los Altos Hills City Council for the second time in a month to work with them to prevent a crisis by conserving the district’s limited water supply. The district’s supply originates from the Hetch Hetchy reservoir in Yosemite National Park.

The majority of Los Altos Hills residents who draw on district water do not abuse their allotments. The problem lies with a select group of residents who are consuming excessive amounts of water. Those residents are probably using much of the water for landscaping and expansive lawns, board member Jan Fenwick said.

Numbers for August 2003 - water consumption is highest during the month of August - show that 8 percent of district clients use 75 percent of the total water supply, according to a report presented to the council.

Even though the district has implemented a five-tiered rate system that penalizes high users, it’s not effective because affluent residents can afford the cost increase, Fenwick and board director Ernest Solomon told the council.

They asked the council to look into requiring new homeowners to work with a landscape architect to calculate the amount of water needed for different types of vegetation. Homeowners would then be aware of the requirements for their landscaping.

Fenwick and Solomon were spurred to go before the council by the release of a planning commission report on water conservation that did not recommend any additional conservation measures other than updating educational materials given to new residents.

One option to get high users to cut back is to publicly print the names of the top 10 users, Councilman Bob Fenwick said.

Los Altos Hills makes up for excess allotment by purchasing surplus water from other local agencies. The board is concerned because the population is continuing to grow, while the water supply from Hetch Hetchy is fixed.

Purissima serves two-thirds of Los Altos Hills.