Wine Country Times

Sonoma Water reported that the Sonoma County Water Agency is allowing Lake Mendocino to cut their water releases since attaining a Temporary Urgency Change Order from the State Water Resources Control Board, due to a water shortage. 

The lake contains only 40% of the target water supply storage at this time and the limitations are required in order to protect the lake’s water levels. 

“The water year type for the Upper Russian River (the area of the Russian River between the confluence of Dry Creek and Lake Mendocino) is now critical based on the February Lake Mendocino storage threshold," according to Sonoma Water.

The Temporary Urgency Change Petition cautions against draining the water at Lake Mendocino any more, given the reality that the water supply condition for the Russian River was changed from “normal” to “dry” on Jan. 1.

“The calculated cumulative inflow of 9,539 acre-feet exceeded the threshold criterion of 8,000 acre-feet between the two classifications,” Sonoma Water reported.

However, the “normal” classification that the water supply received did not take into account the fact that there were lower-than-normal levels of rainfall in 2020 in the Upper Russian River. 

“As measured at Ukiah, recorded rainfall for 2020 was 11.32 inches, which amounts to 31% of the average rainfall (37.01 inches) and the second lowest recorded rainfall since 1893,” Sonoma Water reported. 

The Upper Russian River, Dry Creek and the Lower Russian River will all be reexamined on March 1 before the county determines the best course of action to take. 

As always, Sonoma Water requests that its community’s residents do their part to conserve water. They recommend certain actions such as using only high-efficiency appliances, which tend to use less water than conventional machines, check regularly for toilet leaks and to only run home appliances with full loads.