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We wanted to pass along some pieces of information to keep you informed of our activities.
We have been working diligently on Phase 2 of our project filling some of the data gaps identified in Phase 1. We wanted to thank each and every one of our partners and our consultants, Erler and Kalinowski, Todd Groundwater, and Hydrofocus, in these efforts for continuing to provide or help collect additional data to support our efforts on behalf of the subbasin.
Surface Water-Groundwater Interaction Data
Stanford and the San Francisquito Creek JPA will be collecting information on the surface water-groundwater interactions at San Francisquito Creek. A special thanks goes out to Adrianne Carr of Bay Area Water Supply and Conservation Agency, Jennifer Howd of SFPUC, Breann Liebermann of San Mateo County's Office of Sustainability, and Tess Byler of San Francisquito Creek JPA for initially volunteering to put on hip waders with me to collect the data. We also wanted to thank several individuals from the SFPUC for providing additional information they have collected on the San Mateo Creek. This data along with additional data that our consultants will be collecting soon will help to begin to address the surface water-groundwater interaction data gap.
Stakeholder Outreach and Deep Well Monitoring
This month we presented to the City of San Mateo's Sustainability Commission and will be hosting an Open House Tuesday May 16, 2017 in the Town of Atherton's Holbrook-Palmer House Carriage House. First, thanks to the Town of Atherton for providing the facility for the open house. This is an effort to explain our project to residents as well as institutional private well owners and ask for their permission to measure water levels in their private deep wells in the subbasin. Even before the open house we have already received permission from several residents, institutions, and municipalities include East Palo Alto, San Mateo, and Atherton. With cooperation like this continuing, we should be able to supplement our previously produced groundwater elevation contour maps of the deep aquifer from 1994 and 2010 with a 2017 version.
Historical Data Mining
Now there is a topic everyone likes to think about and discuss but may not exactly like to do. Fortunately for us, the previously mentioned Jennifer Howd of the SFPUC as well as some extra help staff from San Mateo County's Environmental Health Pollution Prevention Program have almost completed their work of entering in historical water levels from remediation sites that pre-date 2002. And yes, using the term historical to describe anything prior to 2002 does make me feel old.
Vertical Hydraulic Conductivity Assessment
Sticking with the topic of data mining, the Santa Clara Valley Water District and Alameda County Water District have been extremely helpful in searching for and providing useful information for evaluations of vertical conductivity as well as boundary interactions between our subbasins.
Partnerships
Although it may seem like it, this is not an exhaustive list of all of the partnerships, or even all of the activities conducted by the partners listed above, that have been formed to help us on our collective goal to better understand the subbasin. If I have failed to mention you or your agency here, I apologize and thank you for your efforts. We will continue to reach out to anyone and everyone that is willing to assist in these efforts and keep you informed of our on-going activities.
Press
Finally, Ilana Crankshaw of Stanford's Water in the West recently wrote an article about our project. I have not seen a better piece of journalism in my opinion, but I may be biased. Thanks Ilana!
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