Novato agency to store water from Russian River
Supplies will be stockpiled into Stafford Lake reservoir
To ensure its only reservoir for the Novato area doesn’t go dry if the drought persists, the North Marin Water District plans to spend potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars to stockpile imported Russian River water this winter.
The district, which serves 60,000 Novato area residents, has employed the same strategy in past droughts, including last winter when it pumped in $405,000 worth of Russian River water into its Stafford Lake reservoir in anticipation of a dry year.
The district’s prediction proved true: The winter of 2020-2021 was the district’s driest on record. Stafford Lake would have gone dry this summer had the district not added the extra supplies.
Stafford Lake provides 25% of the district’s water supply and is mostly tapped during the summer months when water use typically doubles because of outdoor irrigation. The remaining supply comes from Russian River water purchased from the Sonoma Water agency. Sonoma cut imports to Marin by 20% this summer in response to its own water shortage issues.
This time around, the North Marin Water District plans to begin feeding Russian River water into Stafford Lake much earlier, beginning in early December. Staff also indicated that the agency could purchase nearly double what it did last year if needed.
“We will continue to watch the rainfall events and try to manage it as best as possible,” Drew McIntyre, the district general manager, told the agency’s board on Tuesday. “However, at the end, I still think it’s prudent to move forward now rather than waiting a couple months and hoping that the rains will come.”
Buying the water earlier is a gamble. Typically, Marin receives the majority of its rainfall in December and January. The imported water comes at a cost of about $400 per acre-feet, not including treatment costs, with 2,000 acre-feet costing roughly $800,000.
“I’d hate to spend a lot of money and then we spill because we have a decent amount in December and January,” district board member Mike Joly said Tuesday.
McIntyre said the agency would continue to monitor the rainfall and has the ability to cut off Russian River imports should the rains prove ample in the coming weeks.
“It’s not just turn on the valves and walk away,” McIntyre said.
District board member Steve Petterle said he would rather be in a position of having too much water than not having enough.
“I’d rather take our chances here and make sure our customers have drinking water next year,” Petterle said.
The district stockpiled Russian River water in its reservoir during the droughts of 1988-1991, 2009, 2014 and 2018.
While two significant storms in late October and early November provided a slight boost to Stafford Lake supplies, storage levels are still just about onethird of capacity.
Stafford Lake can hold about 4,300 acre-feet of water, with one acre-foot being almost 326,000 gallons. From February through April, the district pumped in 1,100 acre-feet of Russian River water purchased from the Sonoma Water agency. Storage levels had dropped to a low of 1,060 acre-feet in the week before the major storm in late October.
As of Thursday, the lake had about 1,600 acre-feet of water, or 37% of capacity.
Since Oct. 1, the district has received nearly 9 inches of rain, more than it received during the entire winter of 2020-2021. McIntyre said another 10 inches of rain this winter is needed to refill the reservoir.