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Planning for our Long-Term Water Supply Like other water agencies throughout the state, MMWD is grappling with a long-term water deficit. So far, due to above-average rainfall during the last 15 years, we have been able to meet current needs. However, in the event of a sustained drought similar to the one experienced in the late 1970s, MMWD would not have enough water to meet the needs of people and fish given its current water supply sources and level of demand. In the 1970s, MMWD was forced to construct an emergency pipeline to the East Bay and adopt a stringent mandatory rationing program, which caused customers severe hardships. The Challenge: Not Enough Water MMWD's water comes from three main sources: local reservoirs, the Russian River and recycled water. In a normal year, MMWD customers use about 31,000 acre-feet of water (one acre-foot is enough water to cover an acre of land in one foot of water). The problem is, we can only count on 28,000 acre-feet being available in the first year of a drought and even less per year in an ongoing drought. Even with increased conservation measures, we are destined to have a serious water supply deficit by 2025. The critical task before us is two-fold: increase water supply while decreasing water demand. Meeting the Long-Term Water Supply Challenge Improvements to Date To avoid severe rationing in the future, MMWD has implemented numerous improvements since 1977 to address both supply and demand:
Conservation MMWD’s Board of Directors committed $44 million in 2007 to an aggressive conservation program targeting a potential 10-12 percent reduction in water use by 2025. This will cut the water deficit in half in the long term. The program includes residential water use surveys and commercial water audits; rebates and incentives for water-efficient washing machines, toilets and irrigation systems; and public education and training among others. However, the conservation program will succeed only with committed participation by our customers. Read more about our Water Conservation program. Additional Options MMWD has been investigating a number of options, as there is no one single approach to addressing the complex water supply challenge. The proposed solution includes a combination of the following options: Reservoir Improvements
Recycled Water MMWD's existing recycled water plant, operated in conjunction with the Las Gallinas Valley Sanitary District, is limited by a lack of customers along the plant's distribution system. The most promising potential new customer is the Peacock Gap Golf Course in San Rafael. The supply could be increased by 300 acre-feet per year and existing distribution could be expanded to add this customer and others along the route. Conservation In addition to the conservation program MMWD already has in place, the District is investigating other measures to achieve 3,300 acre-feet/year in further reductions in commercial and residential water demand, such as making it easier for customers to participate in plumbing retrofit and incentive programs, increasing training and certification courses, and improving codes and enforcement procedures related to water conservation. Additional Russian River Supply
Desalination Desalination converts raw bay water into drinking water by removing the salt and other impurities. MMWD has been investigating desalination as a potential water source for Marin since 1990. In 2001, the district initiated work on the current environmental impact report and established a temporary pilot desalination plant in 2005. The pilot plant demonstrated that bay water could be purified to levels that exceed state drinking water standards. At the August 19, 2009 board meeting, the MMWD Board of Directors voted to keep desalination as one of Marin's potential future water supply sources by approving a 5-million-gallon-per-day (MGD) desalination facility, expandable to 15 MGD. The board meeting vote also provided direction to MMWD staff to file a “Notice of Determination” under the California Environmental Quality Act, which the district did on August 20. Completion of these steps was necessary to enable MMWD to proceed with any other future activity on desalination. Ratepayers will have the opportunity to review and comment on all future board action related to the construction and operation of a desalination plant – such as contracts for permitting support, all design work, the issuance of debt, and construction work. In addition, MMWD will develop a plan for providing renewable energy for the facility, which also will be subject to public and board review. The board completed and certified the analysis of the effectiveness and environmental impact of a desalination plant on February 4, 2009. Two options were evaluated. The first was a permanent 5-million-gallon-per day (MGD) desalination plant (producing 3,300 acre-feet/year) potentially located about one mile north of the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge on District-owned property in San Rafael. The second option was a smaller, permanent 1-MGD desalination plant (producing 1,000 acre-feet/year) built to exclusively provide water for the San Quentin Prison. o Desalination FINAL Environmental Impact Report
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Some operational improvements can be made to augment water supplies by 1,000 acre-feet including reconfiguration of a water intake pump at Alpine Lake to allow us to tap currently inaccessible water, the construction of an additional untreated water pipeline and inlet structure at Kent Lake, and the installation of a larger pump station in Corte Madera to optimize the distribution of water.
Currently MMWD receives only a portion of the amount of water it is contracted to receive from the Russian River, due to capacity limitations in the delivery system owned and operated by the Sonoma County Water Agency (SCWA) and the North Marin Water District (NMWD). There are two phases to this option: one is the construction of a new pipeline in Novato to allow MMWD to receive 2,300 acre-feet more water per year from the Russian River, and the other is for SCWA to make improvements to its infrastructure to increase water delivery capacity by 1,000 acre-feet per year for Marin.
