On December 8, 2009, the Santa Clara Valley Water District Board of Directors adopted a resolution continuing the call for 15 percent mandatory conservation through June of 2010. The board’s original call for 15 percent mandatory conservation came last March after careful analysis of the county’s water supply conditions and contingency planning to factor in the potential of additional years of drought. Santa Clara County residents answered that call by achieving an 18 percent reduction in water use.
While the 2009 water supply condition has improved from the March 2009 forecast, overall conditions appear very similar to a year ago, and the drought could persist for a fourth year. To ensure adequate water will be available in 2010 staff recommended extending the conservation Resolution 09-25 from December 31, 2009 to June 30, 2010.
“We may have rain in our current forecast, but we are facing another season of water supply uncertainty,” said Board Chair Sig Sanchez. “We want to send a consistent and strong message to the community that conservation is still needed.”
Despite recent rainfall, the water district’s local reservoirs are at roughly 42% of capacity. When coupled with the Department of Water Resources (DWR) recent announcement that they will only be allocating five percent of total contracted water deliveries to the State Water Project (SWP) contractors for 2010, our water supply outlook is impacted. The SWP normally accounts for between 10 -20 percent of the district’s total water supplies. The initial five percent allocation would mean a delivery of only about 5,000 acre-feet in 2010, as opposed to the district’s average delivery 60,000 acre-feet. While this allocation number could potentially increase, it’s still the lowest allocation on record from DWR.
The district’s response to annual water shortages usually occurs in late spring when more reliable information becomes about water supply conditions related to imported water allocations, Delta export restrictions, operations, and local supply yields. A time extension of the conservation resolution until late spring would align with a more complete picture of the 2010 water supply outlook and annual water supply decision making.