Soquel Creek Water District January 2015 News and Updates

Happy New Year!

Happy 2015 to Soquel Creek Water District customers. 2014 was a busy and eventful year! Just a few highlights include:

• Governor Brown declared a statewide drought emergency due to the third consecutive year of below normal rainfall and encouraged Californians to reduce their water use by 20%.
• The District Board of Directors declared a stage 3 water shortage and groundwater emergency in response to the drought conditions and seawater intrusion detected along our coastline.
• To better serve our customers, we expanded our public outreach efforts and launched these monthly email updates, redesigned our website, expanded our “What’s on Tap Newsletter,” and entered the world of Facebook and Twitter.
• The District partnered with Central Water District and the County of Santa Cruz and held five regional Groundwater Stakeholder Meetings to discuss groundwater issues with municipal water customers and private well pumpers.
• The District Board approved continuing its policy that new water connections must offset their expected water use by funding conservation and other projects rather than declare a moratorium.
• Santa Cruz County Grand Jury released its investigative findings and recommendations about local water supplies. The report reinforced just how urgent our community’s water shortage is and recognized the District’s community-based efforts to conserve water and address water supply issues.
• The District Board completed a 13-month process of evaluating new water supply options and selected to further evaluate two options: groundwater replenishment using recycled water and surface water transfers.
• The District was one of the first agencies in California to receive permits by the State for our innovative Chromium 6 treatment facility.  Our pilot facility is successfully treating naturally occurring Chromium 6 to meet new state standards that went into effect in 2014.
• Governor Brown signed the new Sustainable Groundwater Management Act into law.  This new law requires groundwater basins to be managed by local agencies and establish a plan to achieve sustainability in 20 years.
• Director Don Hornschemeyer chose not to run for re-election in 2014 after sitting on the board for 8 years.  Dr. Bruce Jaffe, Rick Meyer, and Carla Christensen were elected in the fall election and sworn in December.
• Our customers have achieved exceptional and unprecedented water savings.  Since February 2014, we’ve seen an average of 20% water savings.  Our customers definitely did their part to save water! Thank you!