City Warns: Conserve, or Face Water Emergency

With the city's main supplier of imported water set to shut down its plant for a week starting Feb. 27, staffers are urging residents to conserve water.

If residents fail to stop watering their lawns and washing their cars, the city will declare a water emergency, which means that fines for violating water restrictions would triple. 

Under Stage 4, commercial car washes will be not be allowed to use any water, nor would water be allowed for agricultural or commercial nursery purposes. The use of water for commercial, manufacturing or processing purposes would be reduced by 50 percent.

The Diemer Filtration Plant, the Yorba Linda-based water treatment plant that serves South County, is expected to perform necessary maintenance and upgrades from Feb. 27 through March 6.

In past years, the city's groundwater recovery plant, which began operation in December 2004, has provided enough water to see San Juan through the annual shutdown, but the plant is not operating at full capacity due to some wells being out of service for maintenance and repairs.

"Staff is working diligently to get it back online before the shutdown, but the timing may be close," said spokeswoman Kelly Tokarski.

If supplies to do become critically short and a Stage 4 emergency is declared, residents will be notified through the "AlertOC" (reverse-911) calling system.