SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO : Ground-Water Level Curtails Wells Use

For the fifth straight year, low ground-water levels in the San Juan Basin have curtailed the use of domestic water wells, forcing the Capistrano Valley Water District to buy expensive imported water for domestic use.

Ray Auerbach, general manager of the district, said last week that a well in Trabuco Creek that normally provides about 7% of the district’s domestic water supply is now unable to function.

Another domestic-supply well, which provides a smaller percentage of the district’s water, went off line earlier in the year.

“We monitor the wells monthly and all of a sudden (the Trabuco Creek) one was pumping air,” Auerbach said. “That just means we have to buy more water (from outside sources).”

The district’s three domestic water wells normally pump about 1,260 acre-feet of water per year, or nearly 20% of the 7,000 acre-feet used annually by district consumers, a district official said. This year, production at the three wells dropped by about 200 to 300 acre-feet, he said.

As a result, the district has to spend more money to supply its 9,300 customers, Auerbach said. Well water costs the district about $100 an acre-foot to extract, compared with about $261 an acre-foot for water purchased from wholesalers such as the Metropolitan Water District.

“This means a significant impact financially, somewhere between $40,000 and $80,000 a year,” Auerbach said.

The main dry well, in the Village San Juan residential neighborhood about a mile upstream from where Trabuco Creek crosses beneath Interstate 5, is one of five wells operated by the district. Along with the three wells that produce domestic water, two others supply irrigation water, one for the Marbella Country Club golf course and another for greenbelts, parks and schools, Auerbach said.

The low ground-water levels in the basin show that “the drought’s not over,” Auerbach said. “We have to keep our conservation effort going.”

The district serves about 29,000 people, including all of San Juan Capistrano and a small portion of Dana Point.