The following is a press release issued by the City of Fort Bragg:
The City Council declared a Stage 4 Water Crisis at its regularly scheduled meeting on September 13, 2021. A Stage 4 Water Crisis targets a 30-40% decrease in seasonal water use based on the most recent year in which water conservation measures were not required (2019). A complete listing of Stage 4 Water Conservation Restrictions is available on the City’s website.
The City Council and City Administration continue to be grateful to and in awe of our residents, businesses and public partners who continue to exceed the water conservation goals. To date for September, current average daily water usage is 552k gallons a day. If this trend continues to the end of the month, usage will be 32% lower than September 2019, which meets the 30-40% goal. That said, we experienced a drop in average daily usage from 561k gallons for the first 13 days of September to 539k since September 14th – the day after the City moved from Stage 3 to a Stage 4. This is continued progress at a 4% decline in usage in the last week, especially with the restoration of city water sales as a result of the partnership with Mendocino County, Ukiah and Fort Bragg.
Although water hauling from Ukiah started out slowly, the number of truckloads has increased. The rain last Saturday, which increased the flows in the Noyo River, allowed the City to increase the amount available to out of town customers to 63,000 gallons per day for this week, which has exceeded demand. The increased flows in the Noyo have also allowed the City to divert water from Waterfall Gulch to the Summers Lane Reservoir to restore some water storage used during September. As of September 18, before the rains started, the reservoir was at 79% capacity. Capacity has increased to 82%, which is above the 70% level projected by staff at this point of the month.
The Desalination-Reverse Osmosis Treatment System from Aquaclear is scheduled for delivery at the end of the week in time to be operational before the next set of high tides starts on the Noyo River on October 5. The Groundwater Treatment Equipment to allow the City to use the Fort Bragg Unified School District’s irrigation well water for potable water is scheduled to arrive the following week.
We are so grateful to the support and efforts of our community in weathering this drought. Thank you so much for all you are doing.
