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SFPUC reports improved snowpack, projects up to 1,000,000 acre-feet under median scenario
Summary
SFPUC Assistant GM for Water Steve Ritchie reported that as of early February 2016 San Francisco has about 82,000 acre-feet available beyond irrigation district allocations and projected available water ranges from 520,000 (low) to 1.5 million (high) acre-feet; median case ~1,000,000 acre-feet which could refill reservoirs.
Steve Ritchie, SFPUC Assistant General Manager for Water, briefed the commission on drought-related water availability at the Feb. 8 meeting. He said the agency already had roughly 82,000 acre-feet available to the city above irrigation-district allocations and described three projection tracks for the water year: a low projection of about 520,000 acre-feet (which would put the city above 2015 storage), a median projection of about 1,000,000 acre-feet (which would be sufficient to fill reservoirs and water bank) and a high projection of 1,500,000 acre-feet in a very wet year.
Ritchie reported the snowpack was near median and precipitation in the near term looked favorable; he noted recent rainfall distribution had helped recharge supplies. He also said customers had continued to conserve strongly, with demand so far in the year well below the prior year and below five-year averages.
On regulation, Ritchie summarized the State Water Resources Control Board action of Feb. 2 to extend emergency conservation regulations through early November (the maximum nine-month emergency duration), and to allow three adjustment mechanisms for compliance: climate adjustments, growth adjustments and credit for development of new local drought-resilient supplies (e.g., turning nonpotable supplies into potable through treatment).
Ritchie cautioned that projections carry uncertainty but described the outlook as generally promising and answered commissioners questions on storage operations and projected mid-year reservoir refill timing (staff anticipated seeing significant changes by May as the snowmelt season progresses).
