Catalina Is Taking Steps to Minimize Effects of Drought : Conservation: Current restrictions have left the island in better shape than other coastal communities, but officials say even stricter controls will be needed unless winter rains replenish wells.

Sparse rainfall throughout Southern California has prompted state water officials to urge conservation, but on Santa Catalina Island--where fresh water is always at a premium--some restrictions are already in place.

Since October, non-essential water uses have been limited, and Southern California Edison officials say further restrictions may be needed after next summer unless winter rains replenish reservoir stocks.

Not a drop of rain has fallen on the island this month, making it the driest December in 25 years.

Rose Ellen Gardner, vice president of the Catalina Conservancy, which preserves the island’s interior in its natural state, said Catalina “is very definitely in a drought condition. We’re watching the weather with everyone else and hoping for rain.”

At the same time, Edison officials--who manage the island’s water and electrical systems--say the island’s water supplies are better than those of many coastal communities, where substantial cutbacks have been ordered.

New wells have been developed on Catalina this year to tap ground water sources and replenish reservoir supplies, and the use of salt water for sanitation and firefighting has helped to conserve freshwater stocks.

Last year, officials also tried seeding clouds to promote rainfall. Although results were inconclusive, they are considering resuming the program this winter.

“The Edison company is not sitting back and solely depending on rain,” said Edison district manager Keith LeFever.

But there is still cause for concern.

The island’s main source of fresh water, Middle Ranch Reservoir, has dropped to 46% of capacity. The reservoir, which holds 1,143 acre-feet of water, currently contains 525 acre-feet, LeFever said. In August, the reservoir level was about 635 acre-feet.

“We would not have expected it to drop this far this fast,” said LeFever, adding that the same weather patterns that generated strong Santa Ana winds across the state this fall contributed to California’s generally dry conditions and sparsity of rainfall.

On Catalina--where the use of fresh water in most toilets is forbidden by city ordinance--officials instituted first-stage water restrictions in October when the level at the reservoir fell below 600 acre-feet, LeFever said. An acre-foot is about 326,000 gallons of water.

First-stage restrictions curtail non-essential water uses, prohibiting the use of fresh water for washing cars, public streets and sidewalks and limiting the hours for watering lawns from 7 to 9 a.m. or from 6 to 8 p.m., LeFever said.

“We’re still hopeful to get rain this year,” LeFever said. “We still have January to April to see if we can get some recharge. If we fail to get significant amounts of rain between now and May, my guess is we’d have to drop to the next water rationing phase after next summer.”

The second rationing phase, imposed when the reservoir level drops below 300 acre-feet, would require every Edison customer to cut water consumption by 25%, he said.

Compounding the lack of rainfall, annual water consumption on the island has increased in recent years, from an average of about 380 acre-feet before 1987, to an average of 450 to 460 acre-feet in each of the last three years, Edison officials said.

LeFever said water use has increased because of new construction on the island, including the Hamilton Cove condominium development, and because of an increase in tourism. During the summer, island water consumption can reach more than half a million gallons a day, he said.

This fall, the island received about two inches of rainfall in October and November, LeFever said.

Forecasters’ predictions of a lack of cloud formations over the island this year led Edison officials to delay resuming the cloud seeding program and to concentrate their efforts on developing wells, LeFever said.

Edison officials are currently talking to several cloud-seeding firms but would not begin a program before February, LeFever said.

Although it is difficult to calculate how much rain, if any, resulted from last year’s cloud seeding, LeFever said Edison officials “believe in the process.”

“Sometimes (results) are very apparent and other times it’s not so apparent,” LeFever said. “Historically, Long Beach gets more rain, but last year there were times they didn’t get any rain and we would have steady rain all day because we were seeding all day.”

Last year’s cloud seeding program, in which dry ice was sprinkled from an airplane into clouds over the island on inclement days, cost about $100,000, LeFever said.

Despite the lack of rain this year, there is still some subsurface ground water in the island’s remote canyons and ravines, providing an adequate resource for the 15 to 20 wells from which fresh water is pumped into the system, LeFever said.

“We’re isolated and we’re certainly in bad need of rainfall,” LeFever said, “but we think there are some things that caused our system to be in better shape than other communities.”

In Santa Barbara and Monterey counties, for example, some reservoirs are at as little as 12% of capacity, one reservoir has run dry and mandatory cuts of 20% in water use are already in effect.

On Catalina, a new well providing an additional 24 acre-feet a year was put into operation at Bulrush Canyon this summer, and officials are awaiting permits from the Coastal Commission and other state agencies to begin operating two more completed wells that will provide at least 29 more acre-feet of water, LeFever said.

Edison officials are also developing other water sources, including retrofitting an old, unused well near the site of the old St. Catherine’s Hotel at Descanso Beach, and looking at three or four other potential well sites that it will seek to develop in 1990, LeFever said.

But some of the island’s freshwater sources are so isolated and inaccessible that developing them and piping water to the reservoir system could cost as much as $1 million per well, a prohibitive price tag for Catalina’s 2,600 water customers.

Another potential water source is a desalination plant at Hamilton Cove that would provide an additional 145 acre-feet of water--some of which would be set aside for the residential development taking place there. The plant could be operating by next summer, LeFever said.

“Even though we’re in a rationing phase, the system is in better condition than a lot of the mainland,” LeFever said. “I believe in the long term the water situation will look up on the island.”