The drought is still here. Water supply levels at Lake Mendocino and Lake Sonoma remain at historic lows. Water is a resource that our community shares, and it is critical that we all continue to protect and conserve this valuable resource. Sonoma Water and its partners in the Sonoma Marin Saving Water Partnership (SMSWP) urge our community to keep up the great work and effort – water saved now, is water we can use later. For water saving tips and programs you can take advantage of to conserve water and save money, visit SavingWaterPartnership.org.

The Sonoma Water weekly water supply graphic (below) provides a comparison of storage levels during 2020, 2021 with current 2022 water storage for our two main reservoirs, Lake Sonoma, and Lake Mendocino. You can stay informed about Current Water Supply Conditions, Drought Updates, Actions, and Information by going to: SonomaWater.org/current-water-supply-levels.

We’re popping up all summer with free tools and tips to help you save water.

The Sonoma-Marin Saving Water Partnership is popping up all summer with free tools and tips to help you save water! The Partnership will be popping up at over 20 locations through September, including six locations on August 20. Stop by and say hello, get some helpful advice and pick up free tools to help get through the drought. Visit www.SavingWaterPartnership.org for pop up details.

Landscapes and plants feel the stress of a drought but can recover more quickly than trees that take many years to become established. Now is the time to give our trees a little extra care. You can do this by adding mulch under the canopy to reduce evaporation and increase moisture retention in the soil. And by providing infrequent, only once or twice a month, and deep watering, enough to wet the soil several inches. To keep your trees healthy and save water add a low flow drip system or soaker hose around the tree while being careful to not get too close to the trunk. Learn more about caring for your trees in a drought at SavingWaterPartnership.org.

Please join Sonoma Water and the County of Sonoma on Zoom for a series of monthly town halls to update the public on the drought emergency. Experts will provide the latest information on drought conditions each month, answer questions from the audience, and explore key topics, including the impact of the drought on groundwater, recreation, water quality, agriculture and wildlife.

Drought town halls occur the first Thursday of every month at 4 p.m. through November on the following dates:

To register in advance and the town hall on Zoom and pose questions to panelists: https://socoemergency.org/emergency/drought/

Questions may also be submitted in advance to publicaffairs@sonoma-county.org. Spanish and ASL interpretation will be available.

To monitor our progress on achieving the 20% river diversion reduction requirement under the June 2022 Temporary Urgency Change Order (TUCO), Sonoma Water is sharing updated diversion reports.

On June 17, 2022 the State Water Resource Control Board (State Water Board) Division of Water Rights issued an order that approved the requested changes of the Temporary Urgency Change Petition (TUCP) with various terms and conditions. Under critical water supply conditions, the Russian River would have minimum instream flow requirements of 25 cfs and 35 cfs in the upper and lower river, respectively.

The current petitions also commit Sonoma Water and its retail customers to a (the cities of Cotati, Petaluma, Rohnert Park, Santa Rosa and Sonoma; the town of Windsor; and Valley of the Moon and North Marin water districts) 20-percent reduction in total diversions from the Russian River between July 1 and October 31 compared to the same time period in 2020.

Below is last month’s plot of cumulative river diversions starting July 1st, shown in comparison to baseline 2020 diversions over the same time period.

The Water and Energy Education Team recently co-hosted a 5 day professional development for 18 middle and high school teachers titled, Climate Change & Resilience in the North Bay. Each day was spent with a local organization working on climate change solutions in Sonoma County.

During the week, teachers took field trips on topics including land stewardship informed with traditional ecological knowledge, water resource security, impacts to coastal ecosystems, renewable energy and electrification, solutions-focused projects at school, and how to talk about climate change with students.

Teachers will implement lessons they developed during the week and Water Education staff plan to observe these lessons throughout the school year. When complete, teachers will receive a $1,000 stipend for the weeklong workshop and carrying out their lessons.

This workshop helped create new partnerships between teachers and organizations working to find solutions to the challenges of a changing climate. It became clear during the week that partnerships such as these will be key in creating a more climate-resilient community in Sonoma County.

Groundwater Sustainability Fees were recently unanimously approved by the boards of the Petaluma Valley, Santa Rosa Plain and Sonoma Valley groundwater sustainability agencies (GSAs). The annual fees will pay for programs, projects and policy actions to ensure that groundwater in the three basins is available into the future.

“In Sonoma Valley, the fees will be critical to help pay for programs and projects needed to reverse declining groundwater levels and to provide matching funds for state grants,” said Sonoma County Supervisor Susan Gorin, who is the chair of the Sonoma Valley GSA.

The fees are needed to allow the GSAs to implement recently adopted Groundwater Sustainability Plans. These state-mandated plans were developed for each of the three basins. The plans must be fully implemented in 20 years to prevent or correct declining groundwater levels and to avoid other problems related to over pumping, including land subsidence, seawater intrusion, losses in groundwater storage, declining water quality and impacts on surface water.

Get more information about fees: