Avalon could go into strict water rationing in March if there is no rain, a Southern California Edison representative told the City Council Tuesday night, Sept. 18.
Ron Hite, Edison’s operations manager on Catalina Island, said that would be the worst-case scenario.
He said that as of Thursday, Sept. 12, the Thompson Reservoir water level measured at 435 acre feet. Without the desalination plant, the water level would have been 413 acre feet.
Avalon could go into strict water rationing in March if there is no rain, a Southern California Edison representative told the City Council Tuesday night, Sept. 18.
Ron Hite, Edison’s operations manager on Catalina Island, said that would be the worst-case scenario.
He said that as of Thursday, Sept. 12, the Thompson Reservoir water level measured at 435 acre feet. Without the desalination plant, the water level would have been 413 acre feet.
Catalina Island went into Stage One or Phase One water restrictions when the water level dropped to 600 acre feet.
Water restrictions limit when water may be used to water lawns and how such things as cars may be washed. However, with Stage Two water rationing, households would be held to a fixed amount of fresh water that they could use each month.
Stage Two rationing begins when the Thompson water level drops to 300 acre feet or less.
Hite said the desalination plant was generating about 15 acre feet per month. With outages and down time for maintenance, he estimated the plant would generate about 100 acre feet of water in a year.
He said water rationing could be avoided if Catalina saw a series of rain storms that exceeded the saturation level of the ground.
“An inch or two isn’t going to cut it,” Hite said.
Councilmember Ralph Morrow asked if the desalination plant was going 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Hite said yes.
Hite told the council that there is another aquifer below the one currently being used by Avalon.
Mayor Bob Kennedy asked how long it would take, if Edison started immediately, to access that water.
Hite said it would take approximately 18 months. He estimated it would take a year to get the required permits.
Hite said 50 percent of the water Avalon uses was available in the bedrock and it would be more productive to develop more wells than to use the desalination plant. He said water from the plant was five times more expensive than water from the aquifer.
Kennedy asked if bringing water to the Island by barge was being considered.
Hite said not at this point. “If it comes to it, we’ll do what we have to do,” he said.
Hite said that Edison would begin an education campaign about water rationing in January if it appeared that rationing was going to take place in March.
Hite, apparently quoting Mayor Kennedy, said 6 inches of rain would bring the reservoir water level back up.
“Hopefully, we’ll get rain in December and January,” Hite said.
On Aug. 6, Hite told the council that water rationing could start as early as January.
