"The Sonoma County Water Agency expects to impose mandatory water restrictions in four to six weeks, the earliest and most aggressive step the agency has ever taken to combat what is shaping up to be a potentially devastating drought.
The agency will declare this a dry water year on Sunday and will begin reducing the amount of water it releases into the Russian River from Coyote Dam on Lake Mendocino.
Then on Monday, water officials will inform representatives of the agency’s major customers that mandatory water rationing of from 30 percent to 50 percent is likely within four to six weeks.
It will be the first time the Water Agency has ever instituted mandatory water rationing, a reflection of just how dire the situation is becoming as the dry winter continues.
“This is most aggressive call in the whole Bay Area, said Brad Sherwood, spokesman for the agency. “We are completely dependent on Lake Sonoma and Lake Mendocino.”
It will be up to the individual cities and water districts the agency serves to implement conservation efforts. How drastic those plans are remains to be seen. But the agency says it wants the public to be fully aware of what lies ahead.
“We want to be totally transparent,” Sherwood said. “The last thing we want to do is have people say, ‘You didn’t warn us.’”
Rainfall in Sonoma and Mendocino counties is less than half of average, providing little inflow into Lake Pillsbury, Lake Mendocino and Lake Sonoma, the primary sources of drinking water for 800,000 people from Ukiah to San Rafael"
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www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20···tc=yahoo
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