Marin Water Taps Additional Supply

MARIN COUNTY, CA — Marin will soon be able to access additional water supplies, the county’s largest water agency said.

The recent completion of theKastania Pump Station Rehabilitation Projectwill allow the Marin Municipal Water District to tap into supplemental water from Sonoma County, the agency announced Thursday.

The district’s announcement comes on the heels of one of the state’s driest three-month periods to start the year in recorded history, and amid a historic 22-year "megadrought" that has reduced water supplies and heightened fire dangers throughout most of the American West.

The latest report from the Sierras is especially grim, with less than 31 percent of the snowpack remaining and state reservoirs less than half full, KQED reports.

This week’s heat wave is likely to accelerate snow melt before it can reach California’s rivers and streams, climate scientist Daniel Swain tweeted.

The MMWD has a contractual allocation of up to 14,300 acre feet of water per year from the Sonoma Water Agency, which historically provides up to 25 percent of the district’s potable water.

The Kastania pump station will allow the MMWD to tap into an additional 5,000 acre feet of water per year, the agency said.

The MMWD in recent years has typically received just 5,300 to 7,700 acre feet due to hydraulic constraints with a pipeline too small to meet peak summertime demands.

The Kastania pump station will allow the MMWD to overcome that constraint, the agency said.

Crews began working on the pump station project late last year and completed it in January, according to the MMWD, which serves over 190,000 residents, mostly in southern and central Marin.

“The 5,000-acre feet is equivalent to a new reservoir similar in size to the District’s Bon Tempe reservoir provides 4,019-acre feet and is one of the seven reservoirs which collectively make up 75 percent of Marin Water’s overall water supply,” the MMWD said in a statement.

“Having the operational flexibility via the restored Kastania pump station to receive this additional water greatly improves the overall long term resilience of our water supply.”

The pump station also figures provide the potential to access additional supply from the Russian River during the rain season.

The MMWD said it’s evaluating this option within the District’s Strategic Water Supply Assessment.

“Under this option, the District – in collaboration with Sonoma Water – could look to use ‘winter water’ as a means to drought proof the supply from Sonoma so that even in very dry years the District is able to optimize the volume of water received from Sonoma,” the MMWD said.

“To pursue this option, the District and Sonoma Water would need to continue exploring the feasibility of capturing and using this winter water as drinking water during periods of drought.”