'One Of The Worst Januarys Ever' – Santa Clara Valley Water Officials Sound Alarm After Dry Start To 2022
SAN JOSE (KPIX 5) – An unusually dry start to the New Year has Santa Clara Valley Water District officials increasingly concerned about the upcoming summer if there's not more significant rainfall.
"We had one of the worst Januarys ever. And in February, no rain either," Water District Director Gary Kremen told KPIX 5.
Kremen said the South Bay did not receive sufficient rainfall to erase the deficit created by years of drought. Without more rain, the water district may consider more restrictions and tougher penalties for customers who don't conserve.
"Depending on how the rest of the month or so looks, I could imagine the board using more of the stick, more restrictions," Kremen said.
The district director also described conservation efforts as lackluster and disappointing.
Conservation peaked in November with customer using 20% less water. But they immediately reversed themselves in December, increasing overall water usage by 3%.
"I am deeply concerned about the water level of what's going on around here. I'm one of the people at my house, when I remodeled my house, I put in all drip water systems," said Dan Hingle, a Los Gatos resident.
The water district's 10 reservoirs are collectively 26.4% full. Valley Water's situation is being made worse by a decade-long retrofit of Anderson Reservoir.
"We had that big rain for a while there. And that was good, like we were going to have a good year. And then it just died," water customer Danny Thurro told KPIX 5.
