San Clemente Prepares for Possible Water Rationing

Faced with a continuing water shortage despite voluntary conservation efforts, San Clemente is preparing for possible mandatory water rationing if the city reservoir drops much farther, officials said Friday.

The City Council has directed its staff to draft an emergency water-rationing ordinance to be invoked if the city’s situation worsens. Just what restrictions would be imposed have yet to be worked out.

“We don’t think we’ll have to resort to anything so drastic (as water rationing) right now, but we’re being prepared,” said Mayor Brian J. Rice. “We’re still urging people to save water voluntarily, and we hope the situation will remedy itself.”

Rice said the emergency ordinance will probably be presented to the City Council in early September. But he said no firm decision had been made as to how serious the shortage would have to become before water rationing would be imposed.

In early July, city officials learned that its sole reservoir was slipping considerably below comfortable levels. Greg Morehead, city utilities manager, said he checked and found that water use for the summer months this year was unexpectedly running 10% above last summer’s level.

Morehead said the basic problem was that the Tri-Cities Reservoir, which serves San Clemente, only has one intake pipe. Plenty of water is available from the state’s Northern California aqueduct and the Colorado River, but the pipe cannot refill the reservoir as quickly as residential use is draining it, Morehead said.

The city three weeks ago began urging residents to voluntarily cut back on water use. Chris McKeage, city water superintendent, said Friday that voluntary conservation had helped, but definitely had not solved the problem.

“The water level in the reservoir is going down slower now, but we’re not out of the woods yet,” McKeage said. “If we were to have a hot spell, I’m afraid the water level would be dropping even further. The voluntary cutback is helping, but we’ve still got a problem.”

Morehead said that for a “comfortable” supply level, the Tri-Cities Reservoir off Calle Agua in northwest San Clemente should be at 30 feet. The reservoir level is now at 26 feet, Morehead said.

“If it goes below 25 feet, then I’m very worried,” he added. He said that he would recommend mandatory water rationing “at somewhere between a level of 22 and 25 feet.”

Morehead said increased water use this summer was due to a combination of things: “new residents, warm weather, new planting of slopes late in the year, soil compaction (for new development) and things like street cleaning.”

Slow-growth advocates in San Clemente have charged that the city’s water shortage stems from “unrestricted growth” in the city.

Lorraine Brouillette, president of San Clementeans for Managed Growth, said the water shortage “reflects all the growth that the city has been allowing while not considering how the growth will hurt our water supplies.”

Rice countered that he believes the city government is conscientiously trying to manage growth and keep service levels unimpaired.

The reservoir will get a second water intake pipe in 1991, Rice said. Until then, he said, the city may face more temporary water shortages.

“My big worry right now is about next summer, the summer of 1990,” he said.