Major Bay Area water district on brink of declaring stage 1 drought
After two exceptionally dry California winters, the East Bay Municipal Utility District is on the brink of declaring a stage 1 drought and asking customers to establish a district-wide voluntary water use reduction of 10 percent.
The utility district's board of directors is meeting Tuesday night and district staff members will present the 2021 Water Supply Availability and Deficiency Report and make the recommendation.
EBMUD's water supply is dependent on a series of reservoirs, aqueducts, treatment plants and distribution plants fed by Sierra snowmelt above the Mokelumne River.
The district said this year's “water supply is not sufficient for meeting customer demands and storage targets after meeting flow obligations in the Lower Mokelumne River,” according to KTVU. Precipitation in the Mokelumne watershed is at 53% of average and water storage within the system is at 69% of capacity.
The board will also be considering pulling water from the "Sacramento River through the Freeport Regional Water Project, which it’s done during previous droughts," according to CBS News.
You can watch the board meeting here.
Last week, Marin Municipal Water District was the first major water agency in the San Francisco Bay Area to declare a water shortage emergency and impose restrictions on customers.
The district's board of directors voted unanimously on April 20 to approve parts of a program imposing mandatory water use restrictions, said Jeanne Mariani-Belding, a spokesperson for MMWD.
The district serving about 200,000 residents is issuing a ban on car washing, power washing up houses and buildings, washing sidewalks and driveways, flooding gutters and more, Mariani-Belding said. The restrictions go into effect immediately and will be enforced beginning May 1.
Golf course irrigation will be restricted to greens and tees starting May 20.
The board opted to not impose a limit on outdoor watering to one day per week, but will revisit this in two weeks.