The warnings have been coming for months: residents and businesses need to conserve water because Santa Clara County is in an “extreme and exceptional” drought.
It’s why residents have been asked to use 15 percent less water than they did in 2019 but that goal remains elusive. Valley Water says water use dropped by nine percent county-wide in August, while San Jose Water saw an eight percent drop.
Valley Water, formerly known as the Santa Clara Valley Water District, is a wholesaler that sells water directly to retailers like San Jose Water. San Jose Water, in turn, delivers water to one million customers in the greater San Jose area, including Los Gatos.
San Jose Water has scheduled a virtual public hearing for Oct. 28 at 3pm, when details of a mandatory conservation plan will be announced. The plan will outline information on water allocations, drought surcharges and an appeals process.
“This plan is different from the one used in the previous drought from 2015-2017,” the hearing’s registration page says.
To register, visit sjwater.com.
The impact of the drought is evident in photos of local reservoirs. For example, Lexington Reservoir was at just 18.8 percent capacity on Oct. 15.
Lexington is just one example of how reservoirs across the state are drying up.
“San Luis Reservoir (near Los Banos) is nearly empty and elk are walking on the reservoir’s bed,” said Valley Water Vice Chair Gary Kremen.
Kremen represents Valley Water District 7, which includes Los Gatos.
Valley Water supplies took a big hit when the federal government ordered Anderson Reservoir in Morgan Hill to be drained while Anderson Dam undergoes a seismic retrofit. Work on the 10-year project began in June and means Anderson is nearly empty.
“I’m calling on the federal government to allow us to store more water at Anderson,” Kremen said. “We’re in a tough situation—the first well in the county ran dry last week in (San Jose’s) Coyote Valley. We’re in a world of hurt. Next year could be grim.”
He said there are things people can do now to start conserving, such as “taking a shower with someone.”
“More than 27 percent of our water is used by residents for ornamental landscaping, so people could cut back on that,” Kremen said. “Businesses use 31 percent, indoor residential is 27 percent and agriculture is eight percent.”
He said, too, that restaurants need to “do the right thing” by bringing back the 2015 rule of only serving water when customers ask for it.
That’s already happening in Los Gatos, with the town council voting in August to adopt an emergency drought ordinance.
“In our emergency ordinance, customers have to request their water at restaurants,” Mayor Marico Sayoc said in an email.
The ordinance also limits landscape watering to three days per week before 9am or after 5pm.
San Jose Water is asking its customers to voluntarily limit outdoor watering to two days per week, spokesperson Liann Walborsky said in an email.
“It’s a severe drought and we all need to do what we can since we don’t know what the winter will bring,” she said.
The town, meantime, has established a “Drought Ready LG” web page at losgatosCA.gov that has a drought calculator. The calculator asks questions about your home, then identifies things you can do to improve water efficiency. The laundry section, for instance, notes that in many homes “washing laundry accounts for nearly 25 percent of indoor use,” so people are encouraged to only wash full loads “for maximum water and energy efficiency.”
The drought page also promotes a “Home Energy Saving Toolkit” that includes free energy and water conservation items. On the water side, there are low flow showerheads, faucet aerators and toilet leak detector tablets.
“You drop the tablets into your toilet and if there’s a leak the dye changes color,” Library Director Ryan Baker said. “There’s also a plastic bag that measures water flow and a measuring gauge that allows you to measure how much you’re wasting when you have a drip. Everything in the kit is simple to use and install—there’s nothing that’s not DIY.”
The Los Gatos Library has four toolkits people can checkout, Baker said.
Valley’s Water’s water-saving tip page, which includes information about landscaping rebates, is at watersavings.org.
