Phase One water rationing is coming to Catalina Island and will probably begin in late May.
As of Friday, May 3, the water level at the Thompson Reservoir was at 582 acre feet, according to Ben Harvey, Southern California Edison’s region manager for local public affairs. Harvey gave a presentation on several issues to the council this week.
Phase 1 water rationing automatically begins when the water level drops below 600 acre feet.
An acre foot is the volume of water required to cover an acre of land 1-foot deep.
Phase One water rationing is coming to Catalina Island and will probably begin in late May.
As of Friday, May 3, the water level at the Thompson Reservoir was at 582 acre feet, according to Ben Harvey, Southern California Edison’s region manager for local public affairs. Harvey gave a presentation on several issues to the council this week.
Phase 1 water rationing automatically begins when the water level drops below 600 acre feet.
An acre foot is the volume of water required to cover an acre of land 1-foot deep.
“If the water level in the rservoir drops below 300 acre feet, SCE will implement Phase Two Water Rationing,” according to Harvey’s 15-page presentation.
Harvey summarized the document for the council.
The water restrictions will go into effect in late May, after a filing with the California Public Utilities Commission and public notification.
According to Harvey, Phase One will require Islanders (and visitors) to reduce water by prohibiting the washing of streets, driveways, parking lots, piers and other hard surfaces. Phase One will also prohibit washing vehicles such as golf carts, trailers and boats. Fresh water from fire hydrants may only be used to fight fires. Watering landscapes would be limited to 7 to 9 a.m. and 5 to 7 p.m.
According to the presentation, Phase Two begins when the reservoir’s water level drops below 300 acre feet. In Phase Two water rationing, Edison’s Island customers would have a limit placed on the number of gallons they could use daily.
“While (water) consumption has remained seasonally constant over the past three years, in part because of Islanders’ conservation efforts, rainfall has been well below average,” the presentation said.
Harvey said the desalination plant has been offline since January 2011. He said the desalination plant should be restarted at the end of June or in early July.
Mayor Bob Kennedy said if the desalination plant had been down for two-and-a-half years, that was a significant amount of water that the city was considering as an available water resource. He said he would like for the city to talk with Edison about what the city’s water resources are. Kennedy also said Harvey had always been straight with the community.
Avalon has been through Phase One water restrictions before. On Dec. 4, 2007, then-Edison representative Rosemary Rohaley told the City Council that Phase One rationing would begin on Dec. 18. Pam Albers, who was city attorney at the time, said the City Council had passed an ordinance in 1994 making violations of Phase One restrictions citable offenses against the city code.
Phase One rationing ended in January 2011.
This week, Harvey said that the desalination plant ran consistently for four years prior to the January 2011 shutdown, which kept the Island out of Phase Two water rationing.However, according to Harvey, that consistent run meant there was a lot of deferred maintenance and well rehabilitation that needed to be done.
Edison and Avalon water rate case and other news
Harvey said the water rate case—Edison’s request to the Public Utilities Commission to increase the rate charged to Catalina’s water users—was still being negotiated. The settlement will include the Division of Ratepayers Advocate (a state agency) and The Utility Reform Network. Details will be available once the settlement is finalized. Edison will begin getting out of the water business after the rate case is settled.
Harvey said that Edison had been asked to consider charging an argricultural water rate. He said Edison was willing to discuss the proposal, but only after the current water rate case was settled. According to his 15-page presentation, Edison would want to pursue the agricultural water rate next year at the earliest.
