SAN DIEGO (KGTV) - The upcoming rain forecast for Thursday and Friday is good for San Diego's water supply.
When it's full, the El Capitan Reservoir can fill more than 1,100 football fields, the depth of about 32 typical pools and 22 miles of shoreline. All of that explains that there's a lot of water, but with the rainfall, there's going to be even more of what the city calls "local water."
"We've been maximizing the use of local water for the benefit of our customers over the recent years, and today, this week's rain events are another opportunity to capture local rainfall runoff for our customers," said Drew Kleis with the City of San Diego Public Utilities Department.
El Capitan, along with the eight other reservoirs for the city, captures local rain runoff for customers.
From this recent rainfall, Kleis expects the city will collect about 1.5 to 3 inches of rain in the mountains.
"If we're able to capture a fourth of the rainfall, local water for use in our water treatment system, that's enough water to treat all of our, provide for all of our, 1.4 million customers for around three months or 90 days," said Kleis. "That's a significant amount of water that we're able to provide for our customers."
The goal is to get more local water.
"Maximizing that local rainfall runoff as a first and primary use of local water, that's really our objective here for maximizing the water system," said Kleis.
Otherwise, the city imports water from San Diego Water Authority or a wholesaler.
Does that mean a difference in water bills for customers?
In the long run, yes, but an amount that customers probably won't even notice.
"We'll continue to monitor rainfall in the coming season, and if we do receive less rainfall than expected, we'll adjust the amount of water that we're able to use locally," said Kleis.
Before it gets to your sink, the water goes from the reservoir to a treatment plant, where it's filtered, and then to a distribution center.
