Community Voices … with Gary Kremen: County residents encouraged to save water during record drought
Conservation and investments in infrastructure and technology will help ensure enough safe, clean water for all our communities.
Photo by Marty Cheek
Bob and Nancy Wells in the front yard of their home. They took advantage of Valley Water’s program to remove their lawn and plant drought-tolerant landscaping.
By Gary Kremen
Gary Kremen
San Jose just ended a streak of 54 consecutive days without rain, a winter record. The sprinkling of rain recorded Feb. 22 did little to offset a dry January and February, typically two of the wettest months of the year.
The dry start to 2022 is also impacting snow levels in the Sierra Nevada, which are currently well below average for this time of year. As such, our state is facing a third consecutive year of drought. We declared an emergency last June and our current situation shows we are still in a drought emergency.
Santa Clara County largely depends on imported water, with about half our supply coming from outside the county. The Feb. 23 announcement by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation that we are getting a paltry 25 percent of our water allocation from the federal Central Valley Project punctuates the dire water supply outlook across California.
The water stored in San Luis Reservoir along Pacheco Pass is now very low. Much of this water is used by Santa Clara County residents. Andrew Innerarity/ California Department of Water Resources
This is in addition to the fact that we will not receive any water from the Central Valley Project for agricultural use. This 25 percent allocation may be further reduced if our region does not receive any additional precipitation in the coming weeks.
To better protect our water supply, my fellow board members and I set the conservation bar high in June 2021 and established a 15 percent water use reduction goal for Santa Clara County. Overall, residents, businesses and farmers reduced water use by 8 percent between June and December 2021.
We thank those who have done their part, but we need to do more. We must all make conservation a way of life. Residents and businesses can take advantage of our robust conservation programs by visiting www.watersavings.org.
Climate change can mean longer and more severe droughts. Conservation and investments in infrastructure and technology will help ensure enough safe, clean water for all our communities.
One solution we must embrace is increasing our county’s use of recycled and purified water, a drought-proof and locally-controlled water source. Using advanced purified water will protect our water supply from the impacts of climate change and, together with conservation, will make our future drought-proof.
Gary Kremen is the Valley Water Board of Directors chairman. This column is based on a press release issued by Valley Water Feb. 23.
