California is set to adopt regulations that will allow for sewage to be extensively treated, transformed into pure drinking water and delivered directly to people’s taps.
The regulations are expected to be approved Tuesday by the State Water Resources Control Board, enabling water suppliers to begin building advanced treatment plants that will turn wastewater into a source of clean drinking water.
Over the past two years, Silicon Valley’s largest water provider, the Santa Clara Valley Water District, has had a long list of challenges and setbacks.
In 2020, the federal government ordered its largest dam, Anderson, near Morgan Hill, drained for earthquake repairs. The price tag has since doubled to $1.2 billion.
While the state of California is in its third year of drought, the Sacramento City Council has approved the sale of up to $5 million worth of water from the Sacramento and American Rivers.
Carlos Eliason, spokesperson for the City of Sacramento Department of Utilities, said there is about 16,500 acre feet of surface water on our rivers. The city council approved to drop the 10,000 acre feet of input, or about 3.26 billion gallons of water, and divert it to state contractors and the Santa Clara Valley Water District.
In California, you pay big bucks for blue skies and sunshine filled days like we had today in San Jose.
But this morning, ABC7 News Meteorologist Drew Tuma explained why it’s not necessarily always a good thing.
“This is our 49th day in a row without a drop of rain in San Jose,” Tuma said. “So, that is the record longest stretch in our winter season that we have not seen a drop of rain in parts of the South Bay. So you can see how dry it has been this winter season.”
After months of falling short, Santa Clara County residents have finally begun to hit the target when it comes to water conservation — and the threat of higher water bills may have played a role.
Following two record-dry years, the Santa Clara Valley Water District declared a drought emergency in June and asked the county’s 2 million residents to cut water use by 15% from 2019 levels.
After more than four years of planning, study and political debate, a proposal to build a $2.3 billion reservoir in Santa Clara County — the largest reservoir constructed in the Bay Area in more than 20 years — will reach a make-or-break moment Wednesday.
The California Water Commission, a 9-member panel appointed by Gov. Gavin Newsom, is scheduled to vote on whether the project, which would be located near Pacheco Pass, will continue to be eligible to receive $496 million in state funding.
The Santa Clara Valley Water District, which is the main wholesale water provider in Santa Clara County, on June 9 declared a drought emergency and called on all residents to reduce water use 15% from 2019 levels to preserve supplies.
In August, the most recent month for which data is available, countywide water use dropped by 9%. That was an improvement from a 6% drop in July, but still is significantly under the goal.
Here is the percentage change in water use between August 2019 and August 2021 at the 13 cities and private water companies the Santa Clara Valley Water District serves.
On June 9, as California’s historic drought deepened, the largest water agency in Santa Clara County declared a drought emergency and asked the county’s 2 million residents to cut water use by 15% from 2019 levels to preserve dwindling supplies.
Water levels at several Bay Area reservoirs have reached historical lows — just one of the devastating environmental impacts of California’s punishing drought, the Santa Clara Valley Water District said Wednesday.
Reservoirs operated by Valley Water, the main provider in Santa Clara County, were 85% full in April 2017, the agency said. As of Wednesday morning, they were at 12.5%. Then-and-now images illustrating how low the reservoirs have dwindled reinforced the agency’s grim report.
Santa Clara County on Wednesday became the most populous county in California to impose mandatory water restrictions, saying that the worsening drought poses a significant threat to the local groundwater supplies that provide nearly half the drinking water for 2 million residents.
On a 7-0 vote, the Santa Clara Valley Water District board declared a water shortage emergency and set a target of reducing water use 33% countywide from 2013 levels, a year the state uses as baseline. The district, a government agency based in San Jose which serves as the county’s wholesale water provider, also urged cities and private water companies who buy its water to put in place water wasting rules and other mandates, including limiting lawn watering to no more than three days a week. As in the last drought, the rules are likely to include monthly water allocations for each home beyond which financial penalties would apply.
The Water News Network is San Diego County’s source for water news and information.
