Council will be asked Wednesday to enact new conservation
rules
A second weekend in a row of high temperatures finds the city water supplies still stressed but holding their own.
Public Works Director Jim Ashcraft said Monday morning that the water levels got so low over the previous weekend that he proclaimed a stage one alert – termed Urgent – and ordered the number two Dunne Avenue well turned back on after a year-long rest. The city remains in a first-stage alert.
An older well, recently replaced on East Main Avenue was also turned on temporarily to increase supply to city water reservoirs.
“Water levels were dangerously low,” Ashcraft said, “but held their own over the weekend.”
Three of the city’s 14 water wells, reaching 13 percent of the total capacity, have been taken off-line because of perchlorate from a former Olin Corp. safety flare manufacturing plant on Tennant Avenue.
Ashcraft said the danger of running out of water poses a threat, not just to showers and lawns, but – more importantly – to the city’s ability to fight fires, should one occur during a water emergency.
Mori Struve, Public Works deputy director, said Thursday that the city was poised for stage two or stage three over the weekend but that did not develop.
“We are still in stage one,” Ashcraft said, “with irrigation at city parks at the 50 percent level.”
The solution to the on-going problem will take time and money to get new wells on line. In the meantime the city is urging conservation.
“We will go to the City Council on July 28 and ask them to adopt water conservation rules,” Ashcraft said.
All residents are urged to cut back whenever they can and wait until off-peak hours – during cooler, nighttime hours – to do laundry and run dishwashers. Watering lawns is best done early morning or late evening because winds and hot sun later in the day waste water.
Stage Two, called “Critical” reduces park irrigation by 50 percent, calls on the 20 biggest water users to do the same and back-up wells are activated.
Struve said that the levels July 17-18 fell below the 25-foot warning level, which includes a 5-foot fire fighting buffer in the city’s two main reservoirs, the new Edmundson Reservoir and the one on downtown’s Nob Hill between West Third and West Fourth streets.
“We won’t let the reserves get below our capability to provide fire protection,” Struve said.
Irrigation at city parks and facilities has been reduced by 50 percent and the city’s “water heroes” were alerted that they might need to go into action reducing their own water use by 50 percent.
A water hero is a business that uses great amounts of water but is willing to cut back when needed. Ashcraft said four Morgan Hill School District sites, Alien Technology and Towa/Intercon Technologies in Morgan Hill Business Park and Cochrane Plaza have all signed up as water heroes.
City staffer Andi Borowski said at the stage two critical level, residents are urged to cut back on home irrigation, delay hosing down patios and washing cars, shorten showers and just be extra careful with water use.
Under the Critical stage “water heroes” join the effort and the Main avenue well will return to action along with the Dunne well. The city has 12 municipal wells besides Dunne Two and Main One. The Tennant Avenue well was closed in April 2002 when high levels of perchlorate were discovered to have crossed the street from the old Olin safety flare plant.
In an actual stage three – Emergency – mandatory water cutbacks at major facilities around town will be in effect and irrigation at city parks and the top 20 water users would be shut off, Struve said.
Olin, the source of the perchlorate contamination that has affected several city wells, has paid just over $700,000 for the construction of a new well on San Pedro, replacing the Tennant Avenue well. The company is balking at accepting responsibility for damage to other wells or the chemical’s effect of the city’s summer water shortages.
The city provides Morgan Hill residents with low-flow shower heads and aerators for kitchen and bath faucets free for the asking. They also have a packet for waterwise gardening and water conservation kits. Stop by City Hall, 17555 Peak Ave. Monday through Friday, 8 a.m.-5 p.m. or call Andi at 779-7247 and she will mail the packet and kit.
Ashcraft said he welcomed other large water users to sign up as “water heroes” by calling Public Works at 776-7337 during normal business hours. Cable television customers can tune to Channel 17 to see a slide running with water saving tips and details of the developing situation; this and more information is available on the city’s website. Details: www.morganhill.ca.gov/ and www.valleywater.org/water/waterconservation
In other action Wednesday, the council will hear a report on the medical services policy and objectives – and of gains in services – from representatives of DePaul Health Center and the Morgan Hill Community Health Foundation.
It also will consider the mitigations proposed by Venture Corp. for its owner-occupied medical office building in the Morgan Hill Business Ranch. The project’s zoning is on the Planning Commission agenda tonight at 7 p.m.
Council will consider the updated transportation/traffic report as part of the downtown plan.
City Council meets at 7 p.m. most Wednesdays in City Hall Chambers, 17555 Peak Ave. Details: www.morganhill.ca.gov or 779-7271. Council meetings are broadcast live on cable access channel 17.
