Drought Updates2_mixdown.mp3

Drought Updates2_mixdown.mp3: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix

Drought Updates2_mixdown.mp3: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.

Katie:
Welcome to a City of Reading podcast. Today we are here with Josh Watkins from Redding Water Utility. He's going to give us an update on where we are with stage two restrictions right now. So, Josh, maybe you can tell us what happened at the last Reading City Council meeting. Why did it go to city council and where are we now?

Josh Watkins:
Yeah, so at the last council meeting, the city council voted five zero to move to stage two of our water shortage contingency plan. It was definitely to be expected. The governor came out about a month ago and said that he recommended that all water agencies moved to stage two. And he's asking the State Water Resources Control Board to consider that. And so really, we're a couple weeks ahead of even the state board considering the same thing. But based on our on our water supply that we get from the bureau and the lack of rain that we've had this year, it's the third year of dry winters and the third year of a drought. So based on all of those factors, we recommended going into stage two and the Council agreed. So what that really means is the main change is limiting days that you're allowed to water your landscape. So based on your your address, that's three days a week and it's either Wednesday, Friday, Sunday or Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, based on either even or an odd address. And we give you hours either from 9 p.m. to midnight or from midnight to 7 a.m..

Steve:
Great. Thanks, Josh, with these new regulations for stage two that the community is being asked to abide by, what is the city doing to also abide by these regulations?

Josh Watkins:
The city is doing everything they can to to meet the regulations also. So as you can imagine, our park facilities and city buildings and facilities, they use water. We have especially with our parks, we have a lot of grass areas, turf areas, play areas and landscaping and vegetation that goes with it, which obviously makes the parks such a nice feature. But those, all those facilities, they've shut off their watering on Mondays, which is consistent with with stage two. And then they're looking to also meet that to a 20% conservation goal. So they've cut back the the length of time that they'll be irrigating. And they're also trying to follow the same days of the week based on addresses and get a little complicated on what the actual address is of a park site. And some of them are really big Cauldwell Park, it's a big area, so they're going to have to do some things to make sure that they can they can get through all their irrigation stations, but they knew this was coming. It's something they've done before in the previous drought. And so they're doing a really great job of trying to get ahead of everything. And we're planning to lead lead the way as the city in our community.

Katie:
And just going back to the watering hours just for a second, I know Pro Tem Maisano touched on it, but we're also getting some feedback on social media asking where did those watering recommended watering hours come from? Not nine to midnight and then midnight to 7 a.m.. If people water outside of those hours, they like 8 p.m. or 8 a.m.. How strict is that?

Josh Watkins:
To answer the first part of the question, those hours were recommended by the state during the last drought. We settled on those during the 2014 2015 era last time we were in stage two. We are we're really focused on eliminating water waste. And while we have these hours, if you have an irrigation timer, it's not that big of a deal. If you are only hand watering, it's going to be a little more difficult. But if you are hand watering, we would recommend that if you can, if your finances allow or if you have the ability to get an irrigation timer so you can make these changes a little more easily and comply. So we are we're not going to be out there looking for people who are watering it at 845. We're not looking for that. We're looking to educate our community members and our water customers, and we're really looking to eliminate that water waste. So that's what we're focusing on. We do have the ability to to administer fines in stage two, and that would go through the city's administrative hearing process. But once again, we're really looking to educate and work with people. And we think if if you cut back some of your outdoor irrigation, mostly it's irrigating your grass. If people cut back on timers and go to the three days a week watering, we should easily meet that ten and up to 20% conservation number.

Steve:
Now, Josh, the city is asking the community to to report potential water waste, whether they see it in a neighborhood or in a commercial or business or even at city properties by going to npr.org and select. In the top right corner. I want to report then there's a water waste form. Can you talk to us a little bit about that process? What happens when a community member submits that form? Who does it go to? How is it addressed? What what type of timeliness comes into play with getting those water waste violations, if you will, addressed?

Josh Watkins:
Yes. So those those requests or complaints, they come in to us daily. We send out a notice to the property owner immediately, depending on how severe it sounds like the the water waste is. We could even send somebody out to take a look at it. We have received so many in the past and we are anticipating that we are going to be receiving quite a few of these reports. So the first step is for us to send out the notice that first identifies that they've been reported. Their address has been reported as wasting water. It will summarize what what the rules are now. And a lot of times people don't realize it. If they're if their irrigation is running in the middle of the night, maybe maybe they don't know that it's spraying onto the street or the sidewalk more than it should be. So we do we do act on those immediately. And it starts the process. There's a lot of eyes out there. So if we continue to get reports on specific addresses, then we can take it to the next step and physically contact the person or do what we can to eliminate the problem as it is.

Katie:
And you touch on a good point there, Josh, that if people are watering in the middle of the night, they may not know that they have a water leak. And I know that the city of Redding actually does do water testing during daylight hours to make sure that they can take a look at all the sprinklers and make sure that nothing's malfunctioning. Would you also suggest that community members do something similar?

Josh Watkins:
Yeah, there'd be no harm to that. You can hit the manual feature on or a test feature on your irrigation controller and run through. I mean, you should be doing that to make sure that things are getting watered or not getting watered as appropriate. So, so, so we would recommend that and that is a good point for city facilities. Our park staff, even though they do start pretty early in the morning, we do work during daylight hours for the most part. So they are going to be out there. You might be driving by a park sometime and the sprinklers could be going, but it's going to be for a short period of time. You're usually going to see a city of Redding staff member or a truck out there with the city's logo on it to show you that that they are working on something or or testing or checking the irrigation charge.

Steve:
With regard to Hydrant Flushing, sometimes you'll be driving through the community. You'll see city staff actively flushing hydrants where a good amount of water is coming out of the hydrant into the street. Can you talk to us a little bit about that process? What is it? Why is it necessary? And I guess why is that not considered water waste?

Josh Watkins:
Anything related to to either health or water quality or the general operation of our system is not considered water waste. So when we're flushing hydrants, it's to enhance water quality. So we get iron and manganese deposits that naturally these minerals are in the water when it's in the ground. And as we pump it out of the ground and it gets into the water mains, sometimes those minerals deposit into the lines. And if something happens and the water changes direction in a pipe, whether from somebody using a fire hydrant in a fire or a contractor filling up the water truck or a main break, sometimes we can, we say, stir up the system and we get some groundwater water calls. So in those instances, we're flushing out enough water that we take care of the problem. And really what we're focusing on on water quality. So we've had a we've had a flushing program that we've been doing the last couple of months that's ending. And so going forward, we'll only be flushing hydrants really to address localized water quality problems. And so you probably won't. I would imagine the community members are not going to be seeing Hydrant Flushing very often anymore.

Katie:
We have had some recent rain which everybody I think was very glad to see. And I've been reading some stories about the snowpack being in a better place than it was a few weeks ago, but that still doesn't change our drought conditions necessarily. If conditions worsen in Shasta County, do you do you envision stage three happening this summer?

Josh Watkins:
Probably not this summer. We think based on our water supply, we get it from the US Bureau of Reclamation and the quantity that we can, we can pump out of our groundwater wells. And as I mentioned before, we're over a very healthy groundwater basin with the groundwater levels recover year in and year out, regardless of whether they're dry years or what years. So we're very blessed to be located where we are. So we're anticipating that we have we have enough water to get us through this year with our limited surface water and then our groundwater wells. So plus, obviously, the benefits that we're going to get from this conservation being in stage two. So we. I feel like as we all come together and get through this summer, I don't think things are going to change that drastically, that we would move into a stage three. But one big piece as we're talking about, is the conservation that comes with stage two. And so we are obviously pushing and expecting that we're going to get some savings from everybody.

Steve:
That's great. Thanks, Josh. One of the question there, there's some confusion with the city of Redding being in stage two currently in our neighboring water district, Bella Vista being in stage five with maybe a bit more restrictions. As a result of that, questions around new development and water restrictions around that development. Will there be any changes that you anticipate for the city of Redding new development moving forward due to drought conditions?

Josh Watkins:
No, we would have to get, I think, into our stage five or maybe even stage six before we have a moratorium on new houses, water meters. So we're quite a ways away from that. There is always that confusion with our water utility versus our neighbors. There are some city residents that are in the Centerville Water District and they're in stage three, but they only have four stages. So they're at, I think, a 40% conservation target. So it is important to know who your water provider is and exactly what your circumstances are. And then one question that we get a lot after we get past the which days and what hours you can water on. But a question that we get quite often is how much water am I allowed to use? And unlike Bella Vista, we don't have we don't have a quantity that everybody is allotted. So what we're looking for is eliminating water waste. And as we've mentioned by by adjusting your outdoor irrigation, we feel that that everybody can make that 10 to 20% water conservation goal.

Katie:
And so I guess if you are a customer and you're looking at your bill, is your personal goal to take your reading and try to reduce that.

Josh Watkins:
Amount, that would be a good way to do it. On your bill, you can see the previous usages and look back to even the previous year. So that information is on there and you can compare to what you use, say last April or May and June going forward. So that is a good way to do it. Unfortunately, we only we read the meters once a month and by the time you get the bill, you're it's always kind of looking in the past. So it's kind of like driving, looking in your rearview mirror. But by making the changes to your irrigation controller and the days that you're watering, I think you're immediately going to see these reductions based on last year's usage.

Katie:
Josh, is there anything else, any kind of questions that you're fielding from the community or anything else that maybe be confusing for community members that you want to clear up? Right now.

Josh Watkins:
As we've talked about with the reporting water waste, we have that feature. You can always give us a call at 5302246068 and we answer that during business hours. We have an answering service that will take the calls after hours. So if you if you do see water waste, you can always report it that way. And specifically for city facilities, with the number of people that we have out in our parks and on city property, things get broken sometimes bikes run over sprinkler heads and we don't always know about that immediately. So we are really counting and in the past we do get a good response and people let us know when there's problems. So just because if you do see water waste, don't think that the city is not doing it. If it's on or if it's on our facility or on our property, sometimes parks, facilities, workers, sometimes they only get to a part once a week. And so we can react and make repairs much quicker if people do report these things to us, some of our state highways that run through town are maintained by Caltrans. So if you're unsure on who is responsible for the irrigation and the maintenance of some of those areas, even if you contact us and it's not us, we're going to forward it on to Caltrans or say was a county building and they had an irrigation problem. We would we would find the appropriate party to notify. So like I said, feel free to give us a call, send us an email through the link on the website. And we're all in this together and we're really looking at eliminating that water waste. And so that's what our goal is going to be this year.

Steve:
That's great. Well, thanks so much, Josh, as always. We appreciate the time and thanks for helping to educate the community on the current state of the water. And for those listeners, be sure to go to City of Redding Organic Water for more information on various stages and how they can learn some conservation tips.

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