San Mateo County state leaders highlight our dwindling water resources and growing wildfire risks

Mullin held a virtual panel on wildfire preparedness Wednesday evening, joined by Jonathan Cox, deputy fire chief with Cal Fire who oversees San Mateo County; Dena Gunning, community risk and resilience specialist with Central County Fire; Dan Belville, director of the county’s Office of Emergency Services; and Jeff Norris, district coordinator of the OES.

With wildfire conditions in California worsening over the years, burning roughly 4.2 million acres last year alone, the leaders gathered to highlight how San Mateo County is working to address local risks and to encourage the public to also prepare.

The officials largely reflected on the CZU Lightning Complex, a collection of 20 wildfires caused by thousands of lightning strikes which burned more than 85,000 acres of land across San Mateo and Santa Cruz counties.

“Last year was the worst fire season on record in California that came on the heels of the worst fire season in California which came on the heels of the worst fire season two years before that,” Cox said.

Cross agency collaboration

Responding to the historic wildfire season, the state allocated $536 million for wildfire prevention measures, Mullin said. Cox noted the state also funded 13 additional fire engines, locating one in the highlands near El Granada, an area of particular concern for Cal Fire.

The county Parks Department is throwing additional focus behind reducing fuel loads through a five-year Wildfire Fuel Management Program, Cox said. The nearly $19 million effort would harden 1,830 acres of the county’s 16,000 acres of park land against wildfire through 32 projects spread out across the county. Some of the projects also focus on clearing invasive, highly flammable and nonnative species like eucalyptus trees.

Additionally, the county has worked to develop its notification system, which uses multiple methods for alerting residents of an emergency. Through the federal Wireless Emergency Alerts system, SMC Alert and FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System, the county is able to notify residents through text messages, phone calls, emails and cellphone push alerts.

“We’ve always gone with the concept that no one tool is going to reach everybody,” Norris said, adding that emergency crews also use sirens to notify residents of evacuations or emergencies in case other alerts fail.

Given how extreme conditions have become, Cox said cross-agency coordination is pivotal whether that’s alerting residents or responding. Similarly, Belville, the former chief of the San Mateo Fire Department and former interim chief of the Menlo Park Fire Protection District, applauded the county’s organized response during the previous fire season.

He noted many of these efforts have long been a focus on the county. A year before the CZU Lightning Complex occurred, Belville said the EOC and Cal Fire used data to map out five potential fire scenarios, creating one nearly identical to the map of the CZU fires.

“We’re not reacting to a big incident or something new here. There’s a shift where I think that the citizens are paying closer attention to helping themselves,” Belville said.

Wildfire preparation

Mitigating the effects of wildfires is also a responsibility of the public, Gunning said. Residents are responsible for properly managing fuel loads around their homes and are recommended to pull objects away from the structures, she said.

She also encouraged residents to prepare ahead of time by researching exit routes, packing emergency bags, preparing evacuation plans for pets and checking on their neighbors who may struggle to independently evacuate.

If thrust into an emergency situation, she said residents should try to turn off any propane devices, evacuate early when possible and check on their neighbors.

“It is up to you. We’re all individually responsible for taking action and having our own plans and looking out for others,” Gunning said.

Water crisis

Like wildfire preparedness, changing climate conditions are also having a major effect on the state’s water resources, state Sen. Josh Becker, D-San Mateo, said. He held a virtual panel with field experts to highlight how businesses, government agencies and the public can work together to improve water conditions.

The panel featured Dr. Newsha Ajami, director of urban water policy for Stanford’s Water in the West Program; Gary Kremen, vice chair of the Santa Clara Valley Water District board; Scott Bryan, President of Imagine H2O; and Felicia Marcus, former chair of the State Water Resources Control Board and a current Water in the West Program fellow.

Alarmed by the rate at which California’s water crisis is evolving, the leaders noted any solution to the problem will require a multisector approach.

While residents will need to reduce their water consumption, innovators will have to continue developing better mechanisms for preserving and recycling water and political leaders will need to pursue policies to easily integrate those mechanisms on a broader scale.

“We can do this but we have to focus on doing it,” Marcus said. “There’s a way to do it but we have to figure out a way to create a more modern system based on data and sort of a cleaner set of rules that will allow us to get there.”

Kremen noted conservation efforts are largely based on community interests. To encourage public conservation, the Valley Water District has launched programs offering to provide free low-flow showerheads to residents, to pay homeowners to remove their front lawns and other rebate opportunities.

Imagine H2O, a nonprofit founded in 2009, has appealed to the private sector by providing mentorship to water conservation-focused startups. Bryan noted many new businesses are focused on initiative having learned from previous drought years but said they need assistance from policymakers as well.

“There’s more to be done,” Bryan said, who called on residents to monitor their food waste.

New systems

Ajami said a key approach to modernizing the state’s water system would be to step away from what she called a linear system based on the idea that occasional droughts would be followed by plenty of wet years.

Northern California largely relies on the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir, which gets its water from melted snow packs stored in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. But hotter seasons have substantially depleted snow packs that are expected to dwindle as temperatures increase.

“This is the new normal,” Ajami said. “We have to adjust ourselves to the new reality we’re living with and we have to think about today’s problem as an opportunity to build the future right now.”

Rather than build more reservoirs, Ajami said the focus should shift to preserving water in groundwater basins and on building water recycling systems into new developments. Instead of using clean water for irrigation and flushing, the systems could allow for shower and tap water to be recycled into those systems, freeing up clean water for other forms of consumption.

Affirming his commitment to the water crisis, Becker said he plans to host an additional town hall with legislators to further discuss potential policy initiatives raised by water conservation experts.

“We need to be good stewards,” Becker said. “We can’t be tempted to settle for short-term solutions. We need to think beyond the next quarter.”

sierra@smdailyjournal.com

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