I. RECOMMENDATION:
Staff is recommending the City Council take additional measures to further the City's conservation efforts due to the recent communication from USBR and their ability to only deliver limited water supply this water year as the drought persists including authorizing staff to purchased additional water to meet its needs if available.
II. BACKGROUND:
The City of Coalinga has been in constant communication with USBR regarding its 2022 CVP water allocation. As the Council may recall in May of 2022 staff presented to the Council that the City's allocation went from 25% of historical use to PHS (Public Health and Safety) where council gave the direction to staff to submit an amended allocation based on what the City felt was an attainable goal for water use. A letter was sent to USBR to that effect requesting 4,100 acre feet. Subsequently, USBR followed up with a letter resulting in an allocation of 2,239 acre feet for the 2022 water year. (Letter Attached). Based on this allocation and remaining at status quo, the City is estimating to expend its allocation of water by Mid-September.
Staff was recently on a call with USBR who held that the 2,239 acre feet allocation is all they will be able to provide the City of Coalinga and if the City's continues to take additional water beyond the PHS allocation the City would be taking someone else water. They advised the City there was no additional water that could be provided to the City at this time and that the City needs to take additional steps to curtail water use to avoid going over its allocation.
In addition to the letter from USBR dated July 26, 2022 (attached), staff spoke with the USBR District office about this issue and the possible concerns related to going over it allocation.
As the drought persists and the City's ability to increase its allocation with USBR has reached an impasse the City is going to have to take immediate extraordinary measures to do its best to meet its 2022 CVP allocation. In the discussion section of this report staff is going to provide possible conservation measures that can be taken and what their potential reduction is water use could be.
If no action is taken, the city is expected to run out of its allocation by mid-September.
III. DISCUSSION:
The 2022 water year started with a one day per week watering schedule until the month of May, where that was increased to two days per week. This has resulted in some savings compared this time last year. However, as previously described, more extraordinary measures must be taken in order to not exceed our allocation given by the USBR.
Staff has prepared the following measures and indicated their approximate usage reductions if he council choses to take action. Please note, these figures are estimations based on historical water use figures. To achieve these results, it would require enhanced enforcement activities that may include efforts from Public Works and Police Department in addition to our current Code Enforcement Officer.
In the attached resolution, there are 3 options that the Council can choose from or customize as they see fit. Staff feels at minimum, Option 1 should be implemented.
Domestic Water Use
Domestic water use is classified as residential and multifamily homes. There are 3,450 active water services in this classification. Primarily, this class is single-family residential. Staff is providing possible conservation measures that are estimated and very optimistic that may reduce water usage. These are not exact but reasonable estimations based on the data we have available to us.
Below are some possible scenarios the Council may take action on:
- Residential – 1 day/wk watering – 150 AF
- Residential - no watering of front yard turf -- 200 AF
- Residential - no outdoor watering except trees/plants – 250 AF
- Multi-Family – No ornamental turf watering – 25 AF
- Rural – No ornamental turf watering – 35 AF
Commercial Water Use
Staff proposes advising commercial businesses of Newsom’s recent executive order that no longer allows businesses to water ornamental turf such as grass.
- No ornamental turf watering – 10 AF
Industrial Water Use
Industrial accounts are primarily AERA, Chevron, and SENECA. Staff has already been working with these companies to reduce the amount of water that they use. However, like many businesses, the amount of water used is what is needed to produce whatever product that they are providing. However, there are some industrial users with landscape meters. Staff proposes no ornamental turf watering at these locations as well as sending them a letter advising them, they need to save 30%.
- No ornamental turf watering – 10 AF
- 30% Reduction from 9/1/2022 – 2/28/2023 – 18 AF
Institutional accounts are comprised of schools, hospitals, and churches. The primary water users among these accounts are the Coalinga Huron Unified School District and West Hills College. Staff suggests that we may need to limit their outdoor water use to ball fields and trees/shrubs.
- No Ornamental Turf Watering - 30 AF
Pleasant Valley State Prison & CSH Water Use
The USBR is aware of our situation with the Pleasant Valley State Prison and Coalinga State Hospital. We have spoken with PVSP and CSH and they claim to not be able to conserve any additional water. According to our allocation, they would be required to conserve 30%. Last year, both entities combined consumed 188 AF of water. A 30% reduction would reflect 77 AF.
The City communicated to USBR about the issue related to the CSH/PVSP not being able to further reduce so staff is proposing a revision to the PHS calculation to take this into account including additional adjustments related to water loss calculations and allocation of landscape meters for commercial uses.
Possible Reductions
If the Council chooses to take an extraordinary move to further reduce the City’s water usage here is an example of what this could look like based on the options identified in the attached resolution:
- OPTION 1 – 190 AF of water savings
- OPTION 2 – 298 AF of water savings
- OPTION 3 – 373 AF of water savings
With these measures in place this could extend our water supply beyond the estimated September 15th date to possibly late October/early November.
Potential Shortfall
Taking into account, existing conservation measures, water use trends, potential PHS adjustments (water loss, PVSP/CSH water use, reallocation of landscape meters), additional conservation measures taken by the City Council, the expected shortfall is expected to be approximately 1,000 AF which the City will need to purchase in order to avoid exceeding its allocation.
Ongoing Efforts to Get More Water
USBR has provided a long list of operators in the CVP that may have water available at some market-based price to help with the City’s remaining water needs for this year. The effort has begun to find water, and preliminary results will be provided at the August 4th City Council meeting. Staff will need to come back to the City Council with proposed tired emergency rates to cover the market cost of the additional water. The attached resolution, if the council chooses to adopt, not only provides a menu of options for further water restriction but also asks for authorization to purchase the needed water up to $2,500 per AF.
IV. ALTERNATIVES:
- Do not take any additional action risk running out of allocation. - staff does not recommend as it important to show extraordinary measures being taken considering the ongoing situation.
V. FISCAL IMPACT:
The fiscal impact to the water fund is dependent on how much water the City ultimately need to buy and if rates are increased. Staff will continue to update the council as we move through the summer. |