San Mateo County rain, water levels at average

Mild weather in the 50s and 60s with little precipitation on the horizon will likely continue into the near future, National Weather Service meteorologist Brayden Murdoch said, with rain from November and December storms holding the water levels at average.

“We’re not the driest we’ve ever been, we’re not the wettest we’ve ever been,” Murdoch said. “We’d love to see more water to keep things green and prevent fire concerns, but we’re not in [water] debt yet.”

Water year reports are teetering around 8.6 inches, which is average for this time of year, Murdoch said. However, if the dry spell continues into February, lighter fire fuels, like grass and leafy greens, could begin to dry out, he said.

The catastrophic Los Angeles fires have also prompted conversations around emergency preparedness and water supply levels throughout the state.

Bay Area Water Supply and Conservation Agency CEO Thomas Segal — who heads the organization representing 1.8 million Alameda, San Mateo and Santa Clara county customers receiving water from San Francisco’s regional water system — said that water supply levels are generally good.

“The water supply is pretty good right now from the good water year we had last year and the year before,” he said. “These are not areas of immediate concern as far as a drought, or something like that.”

The San Francisco regional water system operates on behalf of local member water agencies, which take untreated water from reservoirs like Crystal Springs and store it in treated water facilities.

Those aboveground tanks are what operate both in a regular water-use capacity and in emergency situations, making preparedness for weather emergencies largely a responsibility for local water districts, Segal said.

“It really comes back to how much storage do agencies have, how are they managing for the possibility of fire, is it a big concern right now,” he said.

At the California Water Service Bayshore District, for example — which serves San Carlos, San Mateo and South San Francisco — water levels at their reservoirs are “pretty much average” at 70% to 100% capacity, Operations Manager Kevin Williams said.

The dangerous fire conditions in Southern California are not currently present in San Mateo County, Williams said, but he said that when fire season peaks in the Bay Area, water districts are especially mindful. Typical maintenance and inspection that requires sites to be taken down does not occur during peak wildfire season, for example.

“We’re very mindful of keeping as much storage as possible,” he said. “Here, in our district, we’re very confident we can manage residential fires.”

While local water agencies regularly prepare for emergency situations, including power outages and fires, Williams maintained that any fire to the scale of the devastation in Southern California would stretch water storage capacities.

“Systems aren’t designed to handle that kind of loss,” he said. “I don’t know if there’s a system in the state that would be able to withstand something of that nature.”