MMWD Reservoirs Reach 100 Percent Capacity

This year’s early, heavy rains have produced substantial runoff, bringing MMWD reservoirs to 100 percent of capacity. Water is now flowing over the spillway at Kent Lake, the district’s largest reservoir and the last to fill. In the past 20 years, the reservoirs have filled to capacity in December three other times: 2010, 2005 and 1996. More typically, the reservoirs reach their highest levels in late March. Here are the current water statistics:

Reservoir storage as of December 28

Reservoir Levels: As of December 28, reservoir storage is 100 percent of capacity, or 79,566 acre-feet.* The average for this date is 72 percent, or 57,377 acre-feet.

Water Use: Water use for the week ending December 23 averaged 16.0 million gallons per day, somewhat lower than last year’s average of 18.4 million gallons per day. Last December was unusually dry.

Supply Source: Last week we averaged 10.6 million gallons per day from our reservoirs and 5.4 million gallons per day from the Russian River.

Creek Releases: During the month of November 2012, MMWD released more than 300 million gallons, or a total of nearly 1,000 acre-feet, into Lagunitas and Walker creeks in west Marin. 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.