OAKLAND (CBS SF) – Amid the ongoing drought, officials with the East Bay Municipal Utility District announced it would draw supplemental water from the Sacramento River for the next several months.
The district, which serves more than 1.4 million customers in Alameda and Contra Costa counties, said it would pump 35,250 acre-feet of water to boost its supplies on the Mokelumne River through February. EBMUD said the amount of water is about 11 billion gallons, which represents almost 20% of customer water needs for one year.
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Officials said customers may notice a change in the characteristics of their water, but stressed that water is treated to meet or exceed all state and federal standards.
Water is being pumped from the Sacramento River through the $500 million Freeport Regional Water Facility, which was completed in 2011. The facility was previously used to pump water during the historic drought between 2014 and 2016.
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“We’ve planned and invested for decades to make our water supply resilient and now our plans are paying off,” Board President Doug Linney said in a statement. “Ensuring reliable water supplies requires a diverse water supply portfolio including conservation, recycled water, and use of supplemental supplies – we’re doing it all.”
Earlier this year, the agency declared a Stage 1 drought and asked customers to voluntarily cut back usage by 10%. Since July, the agency said customers have saved nearly 8% compared to last year.
The district said as of October 1, total system storage is about 437,000 acre-feet, 76% of average and 57% of capacity.
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EBMUD said the cost of purchasing and delivering the supplemental water is nearly $15 million, which is being funded by budgeted operations costs. The district said it plans to pursue additional water transfers for the upcoming year.