TUSTIN : Council to Discuss Water-Ration Plan

The City Council will consider a water-rationing plan to cut citywide consumption by 15% at its meeting tonight.

City officials said the plan is necessary because the Metropolitan Water District recently reduced supplies to the city by 30%. Tustin gets between 30% and 35% of its water from MWD and pumps the rest for its own wells.

Under the plan, which would affect bills sent out June 22, residents, businesses and other consumers would be allotted a specific amount of water. The amount would be different for summer and winter months.

Water use above the set limit would add 90 cents per unit--748 gallons--to the customer’s water bill, said Irma Hernandez, an administrative assistant in the city’s Finance Department. Those who comply would be billed the regular rate of 71 cents per unit.

Limits would be set for single-family residences, multifamily dwellings, commercial businesses, industrial businesses, nonprofit establishments such as churches and government, city departments, the Tustin school district and landscaping for common areas.

For example, the limit for single-family households between May and October would be 48 units for a bimonthly billing cycle, or about 598 gallons a day. Currently, average use in single-family homes ranges from 35 to 40 units over a two-month period, Hernandez said.

“We feel the numbers are very generous and nothing that’s going to tie down our average user,” Hernandez said.

An appeal process will be built into the water-rationing plan to accommodate consumers who argue that they cannot meet the requirement.