Mandatory water rationing possible

With scant rainfall and reservoirs at disturbingly low levels, Sonoma County water officials are warning they may impose mandatory water rationing later this year.

Large quantities of rain would have to fall within the next few months to escape stricter water rules, officials said this week.

“It’s looking horrible, disastrous actually,” said Brad Sherwood, a spokesman for the Sonoma County Water Agency.

Lake Mendocino, northeast of Ukiah, is at its lowest level for this date in 20 years. Storage at Lake Sonoma, northwest of Healdsburg, also is far below normal.

The dry winter already is prompting calls for water conservation.

“We kind of have a disaster in the making here,” said Pam Jeane, the Water Agency’s deputy chief engineer of operations. “So we want people to be thinking really hard about what they can sacrifice.”

Water officials will update the county Board of Supervisors later this winter on the problem. While no date has been set for making a decision, Jeane said rationing might begin as early as spring.

How mandatory rationing would affect homeowners and businesses depends on the scope of the shortage. Contingency plans developed by cities that get their water from the agency’s Russian River pipeline, including Santa Rosa, Rohnert Park and Petaluma, typically offer a graduated response. Restrictions generally start with greater conservation and lead to limits on lawn irrigation and other water uses.

Severe restrictions have not been imposed since the drought of the mid-1970s.

The region already has suffered two years of below-average precipitation, prompting the Water Agency to cut its water diversions by 15 percent to 20 percent. Those reductions were done in cooperation with voluntary conservation from residents and businesses.

For the rainfal season that began this past fall, Santa Rosa has received about 7 inches of rain, roughly half the amount for an average year. The first two weeks of January have been especially dry, totaling only 0.29 inches, and the National Weather Service is forecasting dry weather through Tuesday.

Santa Rosa’s driest January on record came in 1976, when the city received just 0.39 inches of precipitation.

Statewide, the Sierra snowpack was 76 percent of normal at the end of December, according to the state Department of Water Resources. The agency said the state’s major reservoirs were low. For example, Lake Oroville, the main reservoir for the State Water Project, contained only 44 percent of the storage of an average year.

Santa Rosa averages 31 inches of rain each year. About a third of that typically comes in February and March, and officials are holding out hope the region may find some relief.

Even so, Paul Kelley, chairman of the Board of Supervisors, said the required rationing “could be significant and drastic.”

“If we don’t get significant rain in the next few months, municipal water supplies will be drastically impacted, and we will have to look at water conservation measures that will get us through the summer and fall of 2009,” he said.

Cities, including Santa Rosa, already offer programs that encourage conservation, and the county is planning to add to those efforts. Officials said regardless of the severity of a water shortage, such programs can save homeowners and businesses money.

“It’s really still about responsible and appropriate uses,” said Dan Muelrath, water conservation coordinator for Santa Rosa.

Jeane noted many residents between Healdsburg and Ukiah rely solely on Lake Mendocino for their water supply. The lake also provides significant amounts of water in the Russian River for endangered salmon.

To avoid mandatory conservation, she said, “we’re going to have to get an awful lot of rain.”