San Mateo County added to drought list

“Water is a precious essential resource. With San Mateo and Santa Clara counties now included in the governor’s emergency drought proclamation, we all must take steps to ensure we are conserving water and doing our utmost to further water resilience,” state Sen. Josh Becker, D-San Mateo, said in an email.

Becker held a town hall in May on water resilience featuring water experts. He shared water-saving tips found at California Department of Water Resources and SaveOurWater.com. Assemblymember Marc Berman D-Palo Alto, also met with experts last week in an online town hall to discuss California’s decreasing water supply and water conservation efforts.

Key updates from Berman’s town hall included that many of the major Sierra Nevada watersheds are experiencing flows now that are about the same that it was in 2014 and 2015, which were the driest years of the last drought. As a result of the dry conditions, statewide reservoir storage has also been dropping.

Assembly Speaker pro Tem Kevin Mullin, D-South San Francisco, is also in support of this proclamation.

“We must look for ways to conserve water and I think it is reasonable to ask people to consciously reduce their water use. In addition to these conservation measures, our state must also take a more aggressive approach to addressing impacts of climate change by incentivizing regional climate resiliency planning that reduces climate risk and fosters collaboration among local, regional and state entities on adaptation solutions,” Mullin said in an email.

David Canepa, president of the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors, is optimistic that people will come together to take action.

“We’ve experienced some tremendous, tremendous fires. I think people see that fire and water are interconnected. I think they understand conservation right now is the key,” he said. “We’re coming across a weekend right now that we’re talking about record-breaking temperatures here in the Bay Area. And so if we do nothing in terms of conservation, we’ll find ourselves in a very very difficult situation.”

The nine counties added to the state’s emergency proclamation include Inyo, Marin, Mono, Monterey, San Luis Obispo, San Mateo, Santa Barbara, Santa Clara and Santa Cruz. The governor’s original April 21 order applied to Mendocino and Sonoma counties and then on May 10, he added another 39 counties.

Voluntary water conservation tips the governor suggested included taking shorter showers, running dishwashers only when they are full and watering lawns less frequently.

The Bay Area Water Supply and Conservation Agency have also been encouraging its water customers to do their best to conserve water.

“The governor’s announcement calls for a 15% reduction by all Californians, so we’ll have to see how we modify our messaging,” Nicole Sandkulla, CEO and general manager of BAWSCA, said. “It’s a critical issue for the state, and we support the governor and his actions.”

As of July 6, the San Francisco regional water system including all the reservoirs that are a part of the drinking water system is at 73% of maximum capacity, she said.

“We don’t know when this drought’s going to end,” she said. “We need to make sure we have water for next year and even the next year.”

julia@smdailyjournal.com

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