Although rainfall for this winter is still below average, the 8.20 inches of rain we received over a four-day period mid-month nearly doubled this year’s rainfall, which had been 8.72 inches. We also received some good run-off in the reservoirs as a result.
Here are the most current water statistics:
Rainfall: Rainfall from July 1, 2011, to January 30, 2012, totals 16.93 inches. Average for the same period is 29.52 inches.
Reservoir Levels: As of January 30, reservoir levels are 78 percent of capacity, or 62,241 acre-feet.* The average for this date is 82 percent (65,040 acre-feet).
Water Use: Water use for the last seven days averaged 16.5 million gallons, slightly below last year’s average of 16.8 million gallons.
Creek Releases: For the month of December 2011 MMWD released 410 million gallons, or a total of 1,258 acre-feet, into Lagunitas and Walker creeks in west Marin. These figures are much higher than those of December 2010, when we released 237 million gallons, or 727 acre-feet. The higher volume of water released this winter was necessary to make up for the lack of rain in December. We release water throughout the year to maintain adequate flows for the fishery per our agreement with the State of California.
Current water use and reservoir figures can be found on our homepage.
*One acre-foot is 325,851 gallons.
