There hasn’t been too much in the way of water wasting in the city, which suits officials just fine.
In rare instances where consumption amounts in individual households have shown a spike from month to month, the problem typically has been dealt with quickly, said Escalon City Manager Tammy Alcantor.
“We will send notices, based on billing, just an FYI if their consumption is up from previous years during that billing time,” Alcantor said of residents showing the uptick in usage.
From there, she said, most people have been responsive and either cut back or addressed a problem on site that has led to the additional water usage. No cases have had to go through a penalty process.
She said people have been responsive to the city’s water conservation program and for the most part, the city continues to meet the 25 percent reduction mandated by the state from its 2013 usage levels.
“I think everybody has participated pretty well,” Alcantor said.
The latest figures were for August, which showed overall city usage down by 33.6 percent from 2013 levels, said Alcantor, and 21.3 percent down from last year.
“Usually the second meeting of the month I have a water report,” she added, noting that the September usage figures will be available at the city council meeting on Oct. 19.
Along with residents watching their own water use, Public Works crews from the city also keeps tabs on the situation, keeping an eye out for any excess watering of lawns or other issues with water wasting.
Alcantor said now that, hopefully, the rainy season is about to start, residents should be able to cut down on watering and, when the rains begin to fall regularly, discontinue watering altogether.
Meanwhile, the city is also offering up a couple of special recycling events this weekend.
On Sunday, Oct. 11 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Escalon Community Center, residents can bring their household electronic waste for drop off as well as passenger car and light truck tires, with a maximum of nine tires per trip being taken for recycling. The tire event is funded by a grant from the California Department of Resource Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle) and sponsored by San Joaquin County, the City of Escalon and the San Joaquin Regional Conservation Corps.
The E-Waste event, with televisions, telephones, VCRs, microwaves and more being accepted, is the final one for 2015. For more information, contact Diana Trejo at 691-7422 or dtrejo@cityofescalon.org.
