SAN CLEMENTE : City OKs Drilling of New Water Well

In a move aimed at reducing the city’s dependence on imported water, the City Council voted this week to spend $1 million on a new well to tap local ground water supplies.

The well, which would be drilled near a skeet-shooting range northeast of the San Clemente Municipal Golf Course, would replace an older well that has fallen into disrepair, city water superintendent Chris McKeage said.

“In a sense, we’re playing catch-up,” said Councilman Thomas Lorch, who noted that the older well became unusable because it had not been maintained regularly. Drilling the new well “is also a million-dollar investment in our future water supply,” he said.

The council at its Wednesday meeting also approved an agreement with neighboring Santa Margarita Water District that would allow specially treated waste water to be used to irrigate greenbelts and three new golf courses in the city’s rapidly developing inland area.

Two golf courses are proposed for Talega Valley--a master-planned community in the backcountry--and one is the newly opened Pacific Golf Club near the Rancho San Clemente neighborhood.

The treated or reclaimed waste water would be supplied by the Chiquita Canyon sewage treatment plant, which is operated by Santa Margarita Water District. Reclaimed water from San Clemente’s new sewage treatment plant also will be used for irrigating street medians and parklands once the facility is opened in 1991.

The city’s agreement with the Santa Margarita water agency must still be approved by the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board, said William Knitz, general manager of Santa Margarita Water District. That approval may take up to 18 months to allow state officials to hold a series of public hearings on the issue, Knitz said.

San Clemente officials have been grappling with water supply issues since last summer, when the area’s main reservoir fell to half its normal level. The shortage was blamed on the city’s rapid growth and soaring demand for water. The city has been hard pressed to meet its water needs because a pipe that carries imported water to the area is too small.

After four relatively dry winters, officials are worried that water shortages could become more serious this summer because construction of a new pipeline to bring larger amounts of imported water to South County communities like San Clemente won’t be completed until June of 1991.