click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney
We had torrential rains in December. None since then. Rationing looms. Problem is, that Marin County depends exclusively on rainfall, and we haven't been getting any. It's the dreaded "D" word, as in "Drought".
It isn't like Marin county doesn't have any experience running out of water. Draconian rationing programs are waiting in the wings, if indeed, we don't get copious amounts of rainfall soon. Water bills skyrocket during drought.
click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney
So the level of the lake has gone down substantially. About half of normal. Nicasio Reservoir is a reserve storage basin--it is a back-up to the MMWD system and isn't normally needed. Nicasio Reservoir is running on empty. Pray for rain.
click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney
The shrinking lake has nice soft muddy bottom. Easy to see evidence of animals who have visited recently. That is a pretty good sized Raccoon, some Gulls, and the 3 toed print is a Canada Goose.
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6 comments:
I didn't realize that water was so low in Marin. Rain should come soon.
Like those footprint shots. The rains will come...I think.
Thanks ZOOMIE AND SINBAD'S DAD (JOHN) -- were going to be sunk if we don't get any. Hoping for the best. One year they had to string a pipeline across the Richmond Bridge to bring water in from the East Bay. They tried a desalinization test project but it proved too costly. Monterey Peninsula is going ahead with a big desalinization project--taking brackish water in at the Salinas River on the edge of Monterey Bay, treating it, and then sending it to a distribution pump house in Pacific Grove, about a block from where I grew up. The Monterey Peninsula has been having problems with their reservoirs filling with silt. They are having to abandon one and another is threatened. They're going to have to build a trench around the silted up dam to be able to access water.
I have been praying for rain for quite some time and want to bitch slap the idiots who go on and on about how wonderful it is that we don't have rain.
But if it does rain, you are welcome to fill your water jugs at Chez Nancy. Going across the bridge for water may be cheaper if you do indeed have drought rationing.
I've been through it a number of times and am not looking forward to it again. I am glad that the initiative to blow up Hetch Hetchy Dam and make it into an expensive and inaccessible picnic place was voted down. In these times of skyrocketing population, idiotic management and drought, we need that water.
Oh yeah, you people have to deal with Hetch Hetchy. Precarious pipelines across the Delta. Big and costly construction projects. Personally I think they should not drain Hetch Hetchy--lets not shoot ourselves in the foot. I've never been to Hetch Hetchy. Maybe I should go. Might be interesting to see some of the fire danger before they close Tioga Pass... Hmm...
Ah HA! I have given you ideas for new places to photograph. Mission accomplished!
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