Help Your Trees Survive The Drought

Lake Del Valle

I spent a lovely day at Lake Del Valle today and took some pictures to share. I know we have heard a lot in the news about the lake level. However, I am happy to report that the storage in Lake Del Valle has reached 39,600 acre feet (elevation 702.6 feet). The lake is expected to be full by April 15.

Lake Del Valle is an artificial lake located 10 miles southeast of Livermore, California on Arroyo del Valle (Spanish for "creek of the valley") in Del Valle Regional Park. The lake is formed by Del Valle Dam, completed in 1968. Del Valle Dam and Lake Del Valle are features of the South Bay Aqueduct, which is part of the State Water Project. The Lake serves as off-stream storage for the South Bay Aqueduct, which serves Zone 7. The East Bay Regional Park District operates water-oriented recreation, hiking, horseback riding, and nature study at Del Valle Regional Park.

Guided Boat Tours are now operating on Saturdays and Sundays at 1pm and 3pm. Tours last approximately an hour and a half. Adults $5, children 1 year and up and seniors $3. Sign up at the Lake Marina. For more information about Del Valle Regional Park, visit http://www.ebparks.org/parks/del_valle.

Living Arroyos Logo Design Competition for High School Students

Are you a high school student or do you know one in the Tri-Valley?  Living Arroyos needs a logo, and they need your help!  Check out the information in the flyer below and enter the competition! The winner gets their artwork displayed on their website, t-shirts, and literature.  Plus you could win $150!

Clean Water Program Now Accepting Grant Applications

The Clean Water Program is inviting applications for its 2014 Community Stewardship Grants, designed to facilitate community-based actions that enhance and protect the health of local waterways. Proposed projects must be aimed at storm water pollution prevention in Alameda County and contain a community or public outreach element. This year’s grant cycle focuses on litter reduction projects in particular. Funding requests between $1,000 and $5,000 per project will be considered, for a total available budget of $20,000. Eligible applicants include teacher and student groups, youth organizations, homeowners associations, community groups, environmental groups and other non-profit organizations. Deadline for submissions is April 10, 2014.


“The Clean Water Program’s mission is to protect creeks, wetlands and the Bay. One specific goal is the reduction of the amount of litter entering local creeks and the Bay by 70% by 2017, compared to 2009. That’s why we’re particularly interested in anti-litter projects for this year’s grant cycle,” explained Clean Water Program Manager Jim Scanlin.



Community Stewardship Grants support community-based projects designed to protect waterways in Alameda County, like this creek cleanup organized by a past grantee.Since its beginnings in the late 1990s, the annual grants program has funded some 100 grassroots projects. Activities range from creek cleanups and restoration, wildlife habitat improvement and rainwater harvesting to outreach and education. Outreach projects typically address practices to reduce storm water pollution such as litter prevention, Integrated Pest Management, proper household hazardous waste disposal etc. Outreach methods include art projects, events, trainings, videos and printed materials, among others.



Sample projects funded in recent years:

• Alameda Point Collaborative, a low-income housing community in Alameda, is developing an after-school program for its resident youth that teaches watershed pollution prevention and involves kids in monthly cleanups and anti-litter outreach to the community.
• Cycles of Change in Oakland trained high school students as “watershed ambassadors” who led groups of 3rd through 8th graders to educate small businesses near Lake Merritt about their shared watershed and how to prevent storm water pollution.
• The Alameda Creek Alliance recruited and trained volunteers to monitor, clean up and restore creek habitat, and reach out to creek-side residents through the StreamKeeper Program, aimed at the restoration of salmon and steelhead trout to Alameda Creek

For more information about the Clean Water Program Community Stewardship Grants and projects funded in the past, and to download an application packet please click here.


The Clean Water Program Alameda County is your local government and community working together to protect creeks, wetlands and San Francisco Bay. Zone 7 is a member agency. The Program educates the public on how to keep businesses and homes from contributing to storm water pollution, and also coordinates its activities with other pollution prevention programs, such as wastewater treatment plants, hazardous waste disposal, and water recycling.

New Water Regulations for the City of Pleasanton

On March 18, the Pleasanton City Council adopted an urgency ordinance making changes to the City's Water Conservation Plan. The City Council declared a Stage 1 water shortage, aiming to have a voluntary reduction of 20%. The summary of the water prohibitions listed below are now in effect.


To protect and preserve the community water supply the elimination of wasteful water uses is essential at all times, regardless of water supply level.

 Pleasanton customers shall observe the following regulations on water use:

• Use potable water for irrigation of landscape in a manner that does not result in runoff or
  excessive flooding on patios, driveways, walkways or streets.
• Schedule regular irrigation of lawn and landscape between the hours of 6:00 p.m. and 9:00 a.m.
  the following day. Watering is permitted at any hour if a hand-held nozzle or drip irrigation is
  used. Special landscapes are exempted.
• Limit the use of water for washing sidewalks, walkways, driveways, patios, or other hardsurfaced areas to prevent excessive runoff or waste.
• Use water for mobile or machinery washing, preferably from a hose equipped with a shutoff
  nozzle, in a manner that does not result in excessive runoff or waste.
• Repair potable water leaks from breaks within the customer' s plumbing system within eight
  hours after customer is notified or discovers the break.
• Reduce other interior or exterior uses of water to minimize or eliminate excessive runoff or
  waste.
• Restaurants are requested to serve water to their customers only when specifically requested.

Stage 1: 20% Voluntary Reduction.

There is sufficient uncertainty concerning water supplies for this year or in the next few years that it would be prudent to conserve local water supplies so that these supplies may be used to meet water demands, in future years.

 The following restrictions shall be applicable during a Stage 1 activation of the water shortage contingency plan:

• All of the normal supply level restrictions, in Section A, above, shall continue to be mandatory
  during Stage 1.
• There should be no hose washing of hard- surfaced areas. Use bucket and broom to wash down
  hard-surfaced areas if necessary for the benefit of public health and safety.
• Should not irrigate landscaping on consecutive days or more frequently than 1 day per week
  October— March, or 2 days per week April—September. Additionally, running irrigation
  during periods of rain is discouraged.
• Commercial customers should post water conservation messages on bathroom lavatory mirrors.
• Swimming pools, spas, fountains, and ponds should be leak proof. Any leak should be repaired
  in a timely manner after notification by the City, but should not exceed 72 hours.
• Cover pools when not in use to reduce evaporation.
• Use of water in non-recirculating decorative ponds, fountains, and other water features is
  discouraged.
• Using potable water for construction is discouraged if a feasible alternative source of water for
  construction exists.

For more information, please call the City of Pleasanton's Water Conservation Division at (925) 931-5504.

DWR Press Release: April 1 Snow Survey

 

News for Immediate Release

 

March 27, 2014

 

Contacts:
Ted Thomas, Information Officer – (916) 653-9712
Ted.Thomas@water.ca.gov
 
Doug Carlson, Information Officer – (916) 653-5114
Paul.Carlson@water.ca.gov

 

 

April 1 Snow Survey Will Reveal Whether Recent Precipitation

Has Reversed March’s Steady Decline in Sierra Snowpack

 
 
SACRAMENTO – Department of Water Resources surveyors will head back up the mountain on Tuesday, April 1 for their monthly on-the-ground snow survey with an expectation of finding growth in the snowpack due to this week’s storms throughout much of California.
 
However, the first significant precipitation in weeks likely will be too little and too late to have much impact on this year’s severe drought. Snowpack and rain measurements are so far below normal for this time of year that even sustained rainfall over the next several days, as is predicted, won’t end the drought.
 
Today’s (3/27) snowpack water equivalent as measured electronically by 99 sensors in the Northern, Central and Southern Sierra Nevada range is 7.1 inches, only 25 percent of the date’s average of 28.3 inches.
 
Rain measurements show the same pattern. Average rainfall at eight monitoring stations in Northern California is just 55 percent of the average for this date, and the average at five stations in the San Joaquin watershed is even less – 43 percent of their average.
 
Northern California reservoirs – Shasta, Trinity and Folsom (Bureau of Reclamation facilities) and Oroville (State Water Project) – are well below their historic storage levels for this date at 58, 68, 67 and 61 percent respectively.
 
DWR Director Mark Cowin said this week’s storms are providing some short-term gains, but the drought is far from being broken. “It’s as important as ever for Californians to conserve water,” he said. “We can do that by allowing Mother Nature to water lawns and landscapes and by turning off our automatic sprinklers to save water.”
 
Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. declared a state of drought emergency on January 17 and called on local water suppliers and municipalities to implement their water shortage contingency plans. He also directed State officials to respond to the state’s drought conditions by taking all necessary actions, including facilitating water transfers and reducing water use at government facilities. Visit Drought.CA.Gov to learn more about how California is dealing with the effects of the drought.

Electronic snowpack readings are available on the Internet at:

 

http://cdec.water.ca.gov/cdecapp/snowapp/sweq.action

 

Electronic reservoir readings may be found at:

 

http://cdec.water.ca.gov/cdecapp/resapp/getResGraphsMain.action

What Does A 20% Reduction in Water Use Look Like?