Even with the weakening of the heavy storm cycle we enjoyed throughout May and June, we are still seeing a noticeable reduction in demand compared to 2013. Customer demand, or consumption, averaged 92.4 million gallons a day (MGD) last week. While this was up from the previous week, it was still down significantly (-19%) compared to the same week in 2013, our baseline savings year. We use 2013 as our baseline for comparing water savings because that was the last year TMWA operated normally and did not ask customers for additional conservation. These have historically been our peak demand weeks of the year, so it’s more important than ever that the community stays focused on reducing their water use by at least 10%.

Flows at the CA/NV state line were running at about 90 cubic feet per second (CFS) as of Monday morning, approximately half of which has been released from our drought reserves in Stampede Reservoir. We have been releasing reserves since June 19th. Through Sunday, July 19, TMWA has released roughly 9% of the 27,000 acre-feet of upstream drought reserves available at the beginning of the year (2,447 acre-feet between Boca, Stampede, Donner and Independence lake reservoirs).

Given how far we are into the drought, I’m excited to see how engaged the community has remained with conservation. Between the rain and the community’s efforts, we are well on our way to meeting our savings goal of 5,000 acre feet. Keep up the good work; we still have quite a bit of summer to go.