Avalon residents and business owners have begun receiving notices from Southern California Edison, telling them just how much water will be allotted to them when water rationing begins. The notices came with customers’ regular bills. Anyone who applies for a variance on their water allotment may use 30 gallons a day while the application is being considered.
Avalon residents and business owners have begun receiving notices from Southern California Edison, telling them just how much water will be allotted to them when water rationing begins. The notices came with customers’ regular bills. Anyone who applies for a variance on their water allotment may use 30 gallons a day while the application is being considered.
Avalon will be subject to Stage 2 water rationing, which limits users to fixed amounts, when the Thompson Reservoir water level measures 300 acre feet or less. See the Catalina Islander blog for the latest water measurement.
In Stage 2 water rationing, everyone will have to reduce their water usage by 25 percent. The first offense will result in a written warning on the customer’s bill. On the second offense, Edison will install a flow-restriction device that will be removed after three days and the customer has paid a $200 fee. On the third offense, Edison will re-install the water restriction device and leave it there until water rationing is over.
In late March, Mayor Anni Marshall volunteered to have a water restriction device installed in her home.
“Most individual water allotments have been calculated from a baseline of past water use,” the Edison letter said.
“Please note that you are responsible for monitoring your water use to ensure that you do not exceed your allotment,” the Edison letter said.
Individuals and businesses will be able to apply for a variance. Until Edison makes a decision about variance applications, the individual customers will have a water allotment of 30 gallons of water per person per day.
For businesses such as hotels, the allotment while a variance is being reviewed will be 30 gallons per occupant per day.
Wayne Griffin, chairman and CEO of the Catalina Island Chamber of Commerce, said that the last the Chamber had heard, water rationing would come sometime in the summer.
In early May, the Islander quoted Hilda Delgado, Southern California Edison’s Regional Public Affairs spokeswoman, as saying that the start date of Stage 2 water rationing as a moving target.
At the time, Delgado said Stage 2 rationing would likely begin in mid-July.
According to Delgado the Catalina Island desalination plant provides 85 to 90 percent of Avalon’s drinking water during the winter and about 25 percent during the peak usage season of summer.
According to Griffin, with exceptions such as the desalination plant, Avalon has the same water resources now as it did 30 years ago.
However, Griffin said he did not want to get into the blame game. “I don’t think it serves any purpose,” Griffin said. “It’s not going to produce any water.”
He said the Chamber was working with Edison on a conservation education effort to get tourists to be careful of their water usage.
Griffin said he was confident tourists would rise to the occasion.
Griffin said that because of the state’s drought, tourists would already be aware of the need to conserve water because they were already conserving it.
“Other places are experiencing this, too,” he said. “It’s not just us.”
Griffin also said that weather forecasters were predicting an El Nino in the fall and winter that would bring rain back to the Island. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, El Nino is the warming of central and eastern pacific waters that takes place every two to five years and lasts about one year.
According to the Climate Prediction Center, the chances are increasing for El Nino to take place this year. The center’s May 8 report said there was a 65 percent chance of El Nino taking place during the summer.
