As drought conditions persist statewide, officials with the East Bay Municipal Utility District said the agency has begun tapping into water from the Sacramento River to boost local supplies.
EBMUD, which delivers water to some 1.4 million people across Alameda and Contra Costa counties, typically draws from the Mokelumne River for its water supply.
The agency said the latest move is part of its drought response.
“We’ve planned and invested for decades to make our water supply resilient and now our plans are paying off,” EBMUD Board President Doug Linney said in a statement. “Ensuring reliable water supplies requires a diverse water supply portfolio including conservation, recycled water, and use of supplemental supplies — we’re doing it all.”
Under the plan, EBMUD will pump 35,250 acre-feet of water, or about 11 billion gallons, through the Freeport Regional Water Facility on the Sacramento River between October 2021 and February 2022.
The supplemental water will travel through EBMUD’s aqueducts to the San Pablo and Moraga creeks, and then flow into the San Pablo and Upper San Leandro Reservoirs. The water will then be stored for treatment and EBMUD’s Sobrante and Upper San Leandro Water Treatment Plans.
Because the supplemental water is coming from a different watershed than the typical supply, customers may notice a change in their water’s characteristics, EBMUD officials said.
“Supplemental supplies lessen the need for mandatory drought restrictions and rationing, which can take a heavy toll on customers, businesses and the Bay Area economy,” EBMUD Director of Water and Natural Resources Michael Tognolini said. “We’re grateful to our many partners and ratepayers for making this incredible investment possible.”
The cost of this year’s supplemental water is about $15 million and was funded with budgeted operations costs, according to EBMUD.
The new water year for EBMUD began Friday, with the agency reporting 437,000 acre-feet of water in total storage, which is 76 percent of average levels and 57 percent of capacity. The water supplies remain slightly higher than projected because customers have headed conservation recommendations.
Back in April, the agency asked customers to voluntarily cutback water usage by ten percent due to the drought. Since July, EBMUD customers have conserved almost 8 percent of compared to the same time last year, EBMUD officials said.
11 comments
If there is a drought this winter what do they intend to do? Punt?
So, EBMUD used to be pure,sparkling Sierra water from Hetch Hetchy.. Then EBMUD combined their water with CCWD, the most tainted source of water from the runoff of fertilized (chemicals) fields of the Central Valley. Now this. Water wars are already here. They just aren’t telling you about it. But it’s going to cost you. How’s your water taste now? One word comes to mind: Ick.
EBMUD’s primary water source is Pardee Reservoir on the Mokelumne River.
Hetch Hetchy (on the Tuolumne River) supplies San Francisco (San Francisco wholesales a good portion of that water to cities and water districts in the South Bay and on the Peninsula)
@Noj – EBMUD has never combined water with CCWD. They and CCWD have constructed connections between their systems that would be used in the event of a significant emergency such as a major earthquake. If we are ever in a situation where the interconnects are being used we all likely would be advised to boil water for drinking.
“customers may notice a change in their water’s characteristics”. Welcome to my world. Contra Costa Water District customers have been enjoying brackish water all along. Late in the season it sometimes smells like a pond when you take a shower. Still a great water system, and I’ll drink it even when it’s a little funky, but I’ve always been amazed how most EBMUD and SF customers don’t appreciate how they get pristine Sierra snow melt piped to their taps. And how the bottled water companies have convinced so many people they need factory filtered water from God knows where trucked into their homes and businesses when they can open their taps and get the same or better for almost free. EBMUD customers literally flush their toilets with better water than the best CCWD drinking water .
I was alarmed to hear that their new slogan may be “If it’s brown, drink it down”.
We need to cut back on our water because otherwise Southern California may not be able to maintain their green lawns and pools. According to a September 21 article in the LA Times, water use is up “by 0.7% in Los Angeles and 1.3% in San Diego.” And we need water intensive agriculture like almonds and grapes to suck up the water so rich corporations can export it to the other states and China. Yes, we export our water to China, and they give us low quality plastic stuff in return.
… gee – no surprise… they released millions of acre feet of water out of one resevior to do retrofitting on it… have they even started the repairs? …. doubt it
Friends from Sacramento speak of homeless using the rivers as toilets at Discovery park, which is about ten miles upstream from Freeport. Hope the sanitization process is adequate.
But keep building and letting millions of unvaccinated illegals enter the country as well as the terrorists from other countries.
Government is a joke as it stands at this time. Why should I as a legal over taxed citizen follow the rules when no one else does and gets frevies for doing nothing. People are sick of this!
Which water agencies downstream of this point will be impacted if EBMUD starts ‘diverting’ water at this location?
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