Morgan Hill water customers consumed record 13.48 million
gallons on July 23
Morgan Hill – High temperatures led to historic demand for water last weekend causing a precarious situation where one pump failure or line breakage could have triggered a critical water shortage, city officials say.
As a result, the Morgan Hill City Council on Wednesday acknowledged the city’s so-called “Water Supply Shortage Action Plan” and gave the city manager’s office power to protect public safety when water emergencies occur by shutting off the city’s largest irrigation accounts, including city parks and the Morgan Hill Unified School District.
On Sunday, with temperatures reaching 112 degrees, the city pumped 13.48 million gallons to customers – a record amount for Morgan Hill, said Public Works Director Jim Ashcraft. The city’s maximum capacity for one day is 14 million gallons.
In addition to that one-day high, the city pumped more than 12 million gallons of water nine days in a row as of Monday. Never before had the city pumped 12 million gallons for two days in a row – let alone more than a week.
Ashcraft said temporarily closing off the largest accounts could free up “10 to 20 percent of water usage” during an emergency, thus averting damage to the water system or weakening citywide fire protection.
The council on Wednesday also granted the city manager power to shut off private irrigation accounts, such as large business parks, in the event of a “breakage or failure of a dam, pump, pipe line or conduit causing an immediate emergency,” according to the law.
Ashcraft said the city’s water system was running full tilt during the recent heat wave. All 15 municipal wells pumped 24-7 over the weekend, leaving no margin for malfunction.
Santa Clara Valley Water District Spokesman Mike DiMarco said running the pumps that long not only poses a water supply threat, but also sucks up huge amounts of electricity. Recent studies show 19 percent of the state’s electricity going toward pumping and treating water.
“If you really want to save electricity during a heat wave, cut water use down to a minimum,” he said.
City Councilman Mark Grzan said the city should do all it can to require its public facilities to be landscaped with “drought tolerant” California native plants.
“There’s just a finite amount of water in the ground,” Grzan said. “California as a whole, now and forever in the future, is going to have to sustain its resources.”
In Morgan Hill, 50 percent of the city’s water during the summer is used for irrigation purposes. In an effort to encourage smaller lawns when property owners remodel, the city this year implemented an incentive program in cooperation with the Santa Clara Valley Water District that aims to reduce the amount of irrigated turf in existing landscapes by providing funding for its replacement. For more information on the Water Efficient Landscape Rebate Program contact WaterWise Consulting, Inc. at (866) 685-2322 or visit the water district’s Web site.
Tony Burchyns covers Morgan Hill for The Times. Reach him at (408) 779-4106 ext. 201 or tb*******@mo*************.com.
