The Tap Is Running Dry in Town Famous for Its Water

Water made Calistoga famous, then it made the tiny Napa Valley town prosper.

Now it just makes Calistoga nervous.

Countless gallons of spring water leave town each month in 10-ounce bottles or down drains at the mineral-bath spas, but Calistoga is decidedly short of plain tap water--and this fourth consecutive drought year is evaporating the city’s best option for getting more.

The problem is larger than the current drought, one of the worst on record. The drought came at a time of rapid growth in Calistoga’s water use and it has virtually dried up the surplus water market that Calistoga was counting on to carry it through the summer.

As a result, California’s water capital can barely slake its own thirst.

The city’s famous geothermal springs produce water too rich in minerals for government drinking-water standards. So while bottlers are busy shipping mineral water out of town at boutique prices, the city is scrambling to move tap water into town at a cost that residents can afford.

“It is ironic: Water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink,” said Jo Ellen Noble of the Calistoga Planning Department. “We may ship our (mineral) water all over the world . . . but we cannot introduce it into our own municipal water system. The state won’t allow it.”

Calistoga has boosted rates for tap water to discourage consumption, expanded the use of reclaimed waste water and forbidden developers and homeowners to even ask for a building permit, but still the city teeters on the edge of a water crisis.

This was not supposed to happen, of course. Ten years ago, Calistoga signed on to the State Water Project and spent $5 million on a pipeline that taps the state project’s North Bay Aqueduct.

But soon after the imported state water started to flow in 1984, the city’s two major bottlers--Calistoga Mineral Water and Crystal Geyser--discovered the popular appeal of juice-flavored mineral water. And then water-quality officials with the state discovered there was too much mud in the city’s reservoir.

Sales of juice-flavored water, which give the sugary fizz of soft drinks a healthful panache, have grown in popularity at double-digit rates each year since they were introduced in the mid-1980s, said Helen Berry of Beverage Marketing Corp. in New York. Rates for individual companies are closely guarded secrets in the highly competitive market.

“Let’s just say they’re very popular and growing very rapidly,” she said. “It even has its own moniker: New Age beverages.”

These beverages themselves are not made from city water, but use mineral water from underground springs. Still, bottlers must use potable municipal water to rinse bottles, flush filters and lubricate machines. As juice-flavored waters soared in popularity, so did the bottlers’ consumption of municipal water--by 300%.

Local bottlers agreed last fall to try to halve their city water usage, but still the city is hurting.

“They’re using significantly--and I do mean significantly-- more water,” said Noble, who did not have specific figures. “The city never saw it coming. No one could have seen that coming.”

Additionally, a 17% increase in the number of guest rooms in mineral-bath spas since 1985 has contributed to a citywide 125% jump in commercial water use, which has Calistoga using tap water at a rate the city did not expect to reach until 2004, she said.

Meanwhile, California imposed new water-quality standards that Calistoga’s aging water system could not meet. The problem was too much dirt in the water. It did not pose a health problem but it stopped the city from using water from its primary reservoir at Kimball Dam.

That forced the city to rely primarily on its new aqueduct, a source that was intended only to supplement Calistoga’s main reservoir and its few small wells. Even with an annual population growth rate below 2.5% and a stringent water-conservation program--the city’s per-capita consumption of 90 gallons per day is less than half the statewide average--Calistoga is pinched.

At first, the city imposed a moratorium on new water and sewer hookups in a bid to curb consumption. It worked, but water use did not slow by enough. Recently, the city stopped accepting building permit applications for any kind of construction, such as room additions or remodeling of existing structures, that might require any more water.

At the same time, the city has bought surplus water from other localities to keep Calistoga supplied until it can find a permanent solution to its problem. Last year, Calistoga bought leftover water from the Yuba City Water District. But with larger, wealthier water agencies now looking for such water because of the statewide drought, Calistoga is not sure it can compete for Yuba City’s water this summer.

Despite this, Calistogans are far from despair.

“During the last big drought in 1978, things here were much worse,” Noble said. “We were within three weeks of asking the state to truck in water. This time, with the (North Bay Aqueduct), we have been able to hang on so far, even if it’s not been fun.”