Salty water plaguing one Bay Area community

Some residents in Marin County have begun to notice a peculiar taste when they turn on their faucets: The water, they've found, tastes salty.

Though the water does not exceed any primary standards for health and safety, the North Marin Water District said, it doesn't taste the way residents expect — and some people on low-sodium diets say it impacts their health, said Pablo Ramudo, the water quality supervisor and laboratory director for the district.

Ramudo said about 1,800 customers have been impacted by the salt water, including in Point Reyes Station, Olema, Bear Valley and Inverness Park.

In response to complaints, the North Marin Water District has set up an eight-tap fill water station on Commodore Webster Drive in Point Reyes Station. There, residents can fill jugs and bottles with low sodium water that comes from a nearby well.

The problem is slightly complex, Ramudo said. Three sourcewater wells serve the area, and two of them — located near the former Coast Guard residences at Point Reyes Station — face saltwater intrusion from the nearby ocean.

It's a longtime issue, Ramudo said, going back at least 25 years. Back then, salinity intrusion would occur for a few weeks starting around July 1, and the saline levels would recede thereafter.

"Most of our customers never even noticed it," Ramudo said.

In the past five years or so, "it's gotten to the point where the wells don't really go back down to their old baseline level."

"So the saltwater level has been stair-stepping for the last five years where it'll come to a new high, then when it comes down, it never returns to normal," Ramudo said.

That's why people have begun tasting saltiness when they run their taps.

The third well sits about a mile-and-a-half east at a higher elevation, and doesn't experience saltwater intrusion. This is where the water for the fill station comes from.

"We get the majority of our water from this third well," Ramudo said. "That means the water we serve to our customers is pretty low in salt most of the time. Every seven to 10 days, we have to run the salty wells to catch up with the demand, and that's when salt in the water increases."

The water district is working on a long-term fix, but it won't be ready likely until late next year. The district said it's building a well on Gallagher Ranch that will be able to provide 100% of the community's water. But the process moves slowly.

The district has spent months trying to secure a Coastal Commission development permit, and faced opposition from a group called Save Our Seashore, which routinely filed a protest every time the permit went before the planning board and commission.

At noon Friday, the Coastal Commission voted to grant the permit and reject the protest.

"Now we can move ahead with obtaining permits from Fish and Wildlife and county construction," Ramudo said. "None of that could move forward until we got the Coastal Commission permit."

Ramudo predicts the district will obtain most of the remaining permits "within the next few months." He estimates construction will begin in early 2022.

After construction, however, comes more wait time — approximately six to nine months for monitoring and testing.

"We're hoping that around July, when salinity starts to rise, we'll have this water available," Ramudo said.

While the current water does not pose a health or safety threat, the district said, it recognizes the annoyance of the salty water.

"When you taste the salty water, that's it," Ramudo said. "Without any other info, you think, wow, that's really salty, this may not be something I want to drink. But it is safe to drink."

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