Blog

Despite the lack of recent rainfall, there is still plenty of water to supply Soquel Creek water district. 2018 was a very dry year, and even so, Santa Cruz ended with a 500 million gallon surplus in Loch Lomond above its plan. The surplus in 2019 was 1.5 billion...

The San Lorenzo River is still flowing freely out into the sea. And even with 200% the average rainfall for Santa Cruz this past winter, water use remains steady in both Santa Cruz and Soquel Creek Water districts. Water usage by the citizens is still at reduced...

Two multi-agency water supply projects were announced in the second half of March. One is a water sharing in the heart of the Santa Cruz Mountains and the other is a pipeline project near Watsonville to harvest water that currently flows out to sea. Both projects are...

Water for Santa Cruz has added pages that focus on: Santa Cruz Water District Soquel Creek Water District Lochquifer News Links Interviews Check out our Soquel Creek Water District page for a report on a meeting with Ron Duncan. The water transfers were discussed in...

Pasatiempo Golf Club has committed to using recycled water to irrigate the golf course. To convert to recycled water, the club has had to build a 500,000 gallon storage tank. Here is a photo of  the tank, which has been constructed and tested. Backfilling the tank has...

Finding a source of drinkable water is hard work for the Water Department. Our water supply cannot come from the San Lorenzo river.  Notice the mud in the main stream of the river, compared to the water coming in at the right...from Branciforte creek. San Lorenzo...

Getting Ready for Water Transfers!   Santa Cruz and Soquel Creek Water District have signed a 5 year contract for Santa Cruz to transfer water to Soquel Creek at the rate of up to 200 million gallons during Winter and Spring.  The Soquel Creek Water District is...

As summer winds down, we can look at the water consumption in Santa Cruz and Soquel Creek for 2016.  There is officially "no drought" in Santa Cruz while Soquel Creek is in a stage 3 drought emergency caused by years of overdraft to the groundwater basin. Both Santa...

Monday, November 2nd, 2:00 pm. The San Lorenzo River breaches the sandbar under its own power. A little more than an inch of rain fell Sunday night – Monday morning, and the water running off into the watershed and down into the San Lorenzo peaked at 40 cubic ft. per...

View of the Hansen Quarry from Mt. Herman On June 22nd,  Santa Cruz city published a document on the WSAC website called “Portfolio Update, June 22, 2015”.  This document contained detailed tables for the various portfolios being considered by WSAC in its modeling....

Billions of Gallons of Water California is in the midst of one of the worst droughts in history. Yet, Santa Cruz’s reservoir, Loch Lomond, has more water in it than last year, 720 million gallons morewater than last year. Here is the exciting part. The San Lorenzo...

This winter the City of Santa Cruz pumped water to Loch Lomond from the Felton Diversion on 78 days, harvesting 250  million gallons.  Had the city a 2nd pipeline installed, as we have proposed, the city could have captured the full permitted amount of 975 million...

The April Water Supply Advisory Committee  (WSAC) meetings have concluded.  Encouraging news came from Gray Fiske, manager of the City’s water supply model.  He has found the water in the San Lorenzo river winter flows, his conclusion: Conclusion The key outcome of...

Last Week, a packed Santa Cruz City Hall Chambers learned that the winter San Lorenzo River flows that are unharvested can supply almost 1.5 Billion gallons per year and that 6.9 Billion gallons of available storage capacity exists in 2 Aquifers in North Santa Cruz...

In January, the WSAC announced that the available winter supply for San Lorenzo permitted by the State and Fisheries could yield up to  500 Million gallons.  Further analysis of the permit and the water harvest records in this 21st Century reveals that the city’s...

March 21 signals the beginning of Spring Santa Cruz enters this water demand season in much better shape than a year ago. Rainfall to date is 20.42”. That twice as much as we had last year at the same time. The Loch Lomond dam is at 82.3% full. As a result, we have...

Can bring us 500 million gallons of water in the summer months I gave 4 seminars on the subject this week.  Attendance was excellent and several WSAC members and water department staff attended.  A result of these 4 seminars is that more information has been added to...

Come to a Seminar this week. Learn about 500+ Million gallons of new Water. During this week there are several opportunities to hear a detail explanation of the water that is available for Santa Cruz use. Seminar Schedule: March 9,  1:00 to 3:00 pm March 9,   7:00 to...

We have the water to be sustainable in this drought. Water for Santa Cruz County is offering a 1 hour seminar to display the details of 500 million gallons of new water that is available to Santa Cruz City Water department. The Seminar will be offered 4 times over a...

It rained 10 days ago, almost 3 “ over three days. This rainfall broke a 44 day dry spell. Despite the long interval, Santa Cruz is at normal for rainfall for this time in the year….over 18.5 “. The San Lorenzo river flow is healthy, plenty for fish and plenty for...

Santa Cruz County experienced  3 weeks of steady rain, beginning at Thanksgiving and ending just before Christmas. No appreciable rain has fallen since then.  A friend and I have spent  considerable time on the San Lorenzo River, as Steelhead fishermen, (not...

The San Lorenzo River is again flowing nicely The steady  and regular precipitation we have enjoyed since the Thanksgiving weekend is now showing up in the San Lorenzo water shed. This is a picture of the San Lorenzo river flow. Anything over 30 cfs is healthy flow....

This past week has seen a major storm come through Central Coastal California. It has deposited over 4” in town and over 10” in the higher regions of the Santa Cruz Watersheds. This has been very welcome to us all. Two interesting studies were released in the last...

Solutions are being presented! Water Supply Study Group hears about the Habitat Conservation plan. Wednesday, December 3rd, 2 Environmental consultants who have worked with the city for several years, presented on their models for predicting Santa Cruz Water...

It costs a lot of money to make salt water in to fresh water... The following is an excerpt from the Santa Barbara Independent Newspaper. "Santa Barbara's acting water czar Josh Haggmark warned the City Council it might cost as much as $40 million to restart the...

Good morning.  Yesterday’s  letter oversimplified and mislead the reader about the amount of additional water available at the Felton Diversion.  I received a note from Rosemary Menard, Santa Cruz Water Director.  Here is her note which is very clear: Hi Scott, Re the...

It has been a good week for Water in Santa Cruz... It has been a good week for Water in Santa Cruz. 3 days of rain.  And it was a slow steady rain, just the right type to soak into the watershed. Two exciting ideas were presented during the November  meetings: one a...

  There is still a water shortage in Santa Cruz, Civinomics posted the alternatives on their website. The rain on Thursday, about a half inch was refreshing. The storm passed through slowly, meaning more precipitation could soak in, less run-off.   This is the...

 Now available to the public The film “Water for Santa Cruz County” is now posted on YouTube! Please take another look and pass it on to  your friends, help us spread the word!  Water for Santa Cruz County is a short film that examines short- and long-range water...

We had a great time and hope you did to A lovely weekend rain storm. 1.08” of rain in Santa Cruz, and 1.56” high in the watershed above Loch Lomond. I would like to thank all of you for coming to the Rio Theater on Tuesday night. I was very pleased with the...

Water For Santa Cruz County Premiers Tomorrow 7:30 at the Rio Theater! It has been an exciting 6 months, and all the hard work of Scott and Chris McGilvrayis finally coming to fruition. The doors open at 7 and shortly after the film will begin at 7:30. We are really...

Last Thursday October 16th at the Civic Auditorium We attended the Water Supply Convention as booth participant number 15. This convention consisted of 25 booths each with their own proposal on how to fix the water shortage in Santa Cruz County. The proposals ranged...

This is Santa Cruz’ first look at alternatives to a desalination plant. http://www.santacruzwatersupply.com/event/santa-cruz-water-supply- convention-our-water-our-future The desalination plant proposed for Santa Cruz could produce 900 million gallons a year, at a...

Two valuable events will take place this month. On October 16th, the Water Supply Advisory Committee of Santa Cruz will present a Water Convention at the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium, from 11 am to 6 pm. At this convention will be the proponents and knowledgable...

As of Mid September, Santa Cruz City has managed to exceed conservation goals set by the Water  Department. August’s average daily  water use was  7.7 million gallons per day, lower than the  target average usage of 8.6 million gallons per day.  September, through the...

We held a water facts seminar on two successive nights.  People attending the seminar came from a wide range of awareness about water.  At one end of the spectrum were 3 employees of the Santa Cruz water department and a member of the Water Supply Advisory committee. ...

Water For Santa Cruz County tackles the question The water department has requested a 61% rate increase to be phased in over 5 years at 10% per year. But why? Water for Santa Cruz is conducting 2 seminars from 7 to 9 pm, on both Tuesday and Wednesday nights (9th and...

Hello Santa Cruz! We have expanded our reach to be Water For Santa Cruz County. Our reach has expanded because the need has expanded. We have partnered with Surf Rider Santa Cruz and are very excited about the opportunities for us with them at our sides. We will be...