Only in Marin? Don’t think so.
Sherry LaVars/Marin Independent Journal
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Friends of Confluence West –
The June 21 headline in the Marin Independent Journal (California) reads Marin Grand Jury report blasts water supply planning.
Things got a bit dicey a year ago, with the county projected to run entirely out of water by July of this year. What saved our (bacon, posteriors, etc.) were uncharacteristic heavy rains last Fall. Since then, as in most of California, there’s been little rain - this for a county dependent on 80% of its supply coming from rainfall.
In which lies a cautionary tale for many western water agencies:
The Marin water agency bet they would only need two years of supply in place. (Not a good bet in the time of the climate emergency.)
The agency uses historic data for planning instead of climate change projections.
Rock and a hard place time - reservoir levels are once more rapidly shrinking, approximately $900 million is needed for deferred maintenance, the land around all the seven Marin reservoirs hasn’t burned in over 90 years, and there’s no financing in place to pay for increased supply (purple/grey pipes, healthier watersheds, etc.)
You can read the Marin IJ article here (paywall), or on our website.
For the West,