Item 4.1 ADDITIONAL MATERIAL posted 07/31/14ADDITIONAL MATERIAL
July 23, 2014
Honorable Mayor and City Councilmembers
Poway City Hall
13325 Civic Center Drive
Poway, California 92064
Re: Emergency Declaration of a Level 2 Water Shortage Alert
Dear Mayor Higginson and Councilmembers,
I fully support City Manager Singer's emergency declaration of a Level 2 Water Shortage Alert. California
faces serious drought conditions and we must all do our share to reduce municipal water supplies.
My family resides in North Poway and owns residential property that is fairly large for Southern
California standards — two- thirds of an acre. When we first purchased the property in 2006, one of the
first investments we made, after installing ultra -low flush toilets and a high- efficiency clothes washer,
was to dig a well for irrigation -only purposes. This was a large personal investment for my family, but
one that was worthwhile, knowing that we would have a reliable source of water during periods of
drought such as we now face.
With this letter, I formally request that Council provide exemptions from irrigation restrictions in
Poway's final Emergency Declaration of a Level Water Shortage Alert for properties, like ours, that
irrigate with well water. California law is quite clear that groundwater belongs to the property owner
and since our groundwater is not part of Poway's municipal water supplies, the City of Poway has no
jurisdiction over the use of our groundwater supplies.
I appreciate the need to maintain simple drought and conservation messaging to all Powegians and the
desire to treat all water customers uniformly. Therefore, I propose that properties that irrigate with
well water be offered the option to post signage on their property that clearly identifies the source of
their irrigation water as groundwater. The existence of a well on a property should be easy to confirm
since the City of Poway annually reminds of us of our system backflow prevention testing requirements.
Those properties with City- approved signage indicating that the use of well water for irrigation should
be exempted from the irrigation schedules established in the Water Shortage Alert and any subsequent
declarations of more severe drought restrictions.
Thank you for consideration of this request. If you have any questions or concerns, I will leave my
contact information with City Manager Singer.
Respectfully,
Cathleen Cortelyou Pieroni
1 of 1 August 5, 2014, Item #4.1