SAN DIEGO — To say it rained a lot this year is an understatement and the reservoirs in the City of San Diego have been filling up.
To get a better idea on that we talked with Drew Kleis, San Diego's public utilities assistant director. He said he likes the impressive rainfall totals.
"In the last 3 weeks we've received over 25,000-acre feet of runoff water," he said. "That translates to having 36% more water in our reservoirs than we did this time last year. That's a lot of local runoff we're able to use in our drinking water system. In the last 3 weeks we've collected enough drinking water for approximately 50 days."
The City of San Diego gets nearly 90% of its water from imported resources and 10% from rain capturing at its nine reservoirs.
Kleis says when you look at last year's incredible rain and combine this year so far local water is significant.
"This year with the benefit of the additional rain and what we've gotten over the last 2 years we anticipate 20% of our local needs will come from runoff," he said.
One reservoir that has not been able to hold on the excess rainfall is Lake Hodges. The dam is over 100 years old so, the California Division of Safety of Dams has reduced the amount of water Hodges can hold at 28 feet.
"During the winter months when the rains come, and we get runoff. That's when the lowest water demand is," Kleis said. "So water needs to be released to maintain those safety levels."
Last year's rains produced 39,000 acre feet of water for San Diego's reservoirs. Kleis says this year's rains are not far behind.
"We've had intense rains in the last 3 weeks and we've collected 25,000 acres feet," he said. "It's not over yet."
According to the city, we've been able to collect 20% more rain than this time last year. And there is still half of February and March to go.
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