Critical water storage tanks high in the Catalina Mountains are full, thanks to some late-winter snow and rain, but the mountains have become âtinderbox dryâ since then, says the manager of the Mount Lemmon Water District.
âWeâre cautiously optimistic, but we canât predict the weather,â said manager Michael Stanley. âEven though we have water available now, as it gets drier we want to hold back some water for firefighting and convince our water customers to be conservative.â
At least average monsoon rains will be vital to keeping water supplies adequate, Stanley said.
âIf we get that, weâll probably be all right,â he said. âWe love seeing precipitation. But a lot of times itâs either feast or famine. ... Still, this is the driest Iâve seen it up here at this time of year.â
âRight now, weâre tinderbox dry. The snow is gone. We used to get 100 inches of snow in the winter. But in the last few years, weâve had only 4 or 5 or 6 feet (from 48 to 72 inches) of snow.â
SPRING SOURCES
Water for the Mount Lemmon Districtâs approximately 400 customers, thousands of visitors and firefighting comes from springs fed by precipitation.
One of the springs, tucked away high in a canyon, was flowing at what could be called a fast drip over the past weekend.
âNow, we have about 18 gallons a minuteâ coming from two main spring sources, Stanley said. âWe might normally be getting 30 or 32 gallons a minute at this time of year.â
Water that arrived as rain and snow has resulted in a current supply of 2 million gallons in storage tanks.
One tank in Upper Sabino Canyon near the mountain village of Summerhaven holds 800,000 gallons and another there holds 200,000 . An additional 1 million gallons is stored in tanks elsewhere in the mountains.
âOur season (for crowds of visitors) typically starts on Memorial Day,â Stanley said. âJune is usually our driest month, and Iâm worried about fires.â
All that means abundant monsoon rains will be needed to keep those now-adequate water supplies from dwindling.
