As Santa Clarita Valley residents emerge from the second straight week of rain, local water officials have made a reasonable request to limit outdoor water use and to curtail lawn-watering.
Specifically, SCV Water officials have asked customers to limit outdoor water use until Feb. 9 while they carry out annual maintenance on facilities at Castaic Lake.
During the shutdown, SCV Water will also upgrade its connection to the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California’s Foothill Feeder, part of the system that delivers water from Castaic Lake to SCV Water for treatment and distribution for urban use.
SCV lawns will be getting watered naturally over the next week, according to weather officials at the National Weather Service office in Oxnard.
“We’re expecting the rain to continue for Santa Clarita through tomorrow and possibly into Wednesday,” Kathy Hoxsie of the National Weather Service said Monday.
“It’ll be dry most of Wednesday and Thursday, but on Friday, we have the next possibility coming in for rain. It reaches the Santa Clarita Valley late Friday night,” she said.
Since Thursday, at least 4.17 inches of rain has fallen in Newhall, and at least 2.2 inches in Saugus, Hoxsie said.
She als said at least two inches or rain that fell two weeks ago, and SCV lawns have been watered with no help from sprinklers.
Every year around this time, SCV Water makes repairs to its infrastructure, and annually asks for help from SCV customers.
“We scheduled the maintenance and upgrades during the winter months when temperatures are mild, days are shorter and the need for outdoor irrigation is minimal,” said Matt Stone, SCV Water general manager.
“Outdoor water use is the single largest use of residential water, so turning off the irrigation is an easy way to help achieve essential water savings.”
The SCV will rely exclusively on local groundwater sources and treated imported water stored
at reservoirs throughout the Valley. Ahead of the shutdown, SCV Water will fill all of its storage
facilities to capacity, with more than 92 million gallons of water.
“About half of the SCV’s water supply is local groundwater, while the other half is imported from the State Water Project and other sources,” said Gary Haggin, SCV Water operations and maintenance superintendent.
“With the scheduled shutdown of facilities, the water from Castaic Lake will be unavailable for use. The water will be in the lake; we just won’t be able to receive it while the facility is undergoing upgrades and annual maintenance.
Once the work is complete, water from Castaic Lake will be available again.
Haggin also noted that this one-week conservation initiative is not a reflection of SCV Water’s overall water supply. It’s merely a response to the temporary disruption of water delivery while key infrastructure is taken out of service for repairs, maintenance and upgrades.
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